In Regards to Middle School Drivers
Middle school aged drivers seems to be a decidedly divisive topic here. My $0.02 on the whole issue is as follows....
I am a four-year FIRST alumnus, but my years were split 1997-1998 and 2001-2002. Those first two years were spent at a school that was a combined middle school and high school. Needless to say, it was also before the advent of the FIRST Lego League. My team at that time was the original, and now defunct, US Coast Guard Academy team (Team 100 in 1997, before team number standardization, and team 124 thereafter). Our drivers were picked not by grade or seniority but by ability to control the robot in trials. In both 1997 and 1998, as a seventh and eighth grader, I was chosen as one of our robot drivers. Competing with robots that one can only call mediocre at best, we never finished higher than the top third at any competitions (1997 J&J Mid-Atlantic Regional, 1998 J&J Mid-Atlantic Regional, 1998 Nationals), but the fact remains that a middle school driver helped the team there.
Given that he/she has the skills necessary to drive the robot and the maturity to be a team player, I wholeheartedly approve of middle schoolers at the stick.
Ken Levin
#571 Paragon Alumnus
|