[maltz1881]

I ran an FLL team for 7 years along with an FRC team. I found the kids who were older in FLL getting bored. They wanted to use tools like the older kids. We made the decision to move up to FTC. Love it! It has made our FRC team much stronger. We have our FRC students mentor the FTC students and this year they even decided to take on a JrFLL team.

We now have 2 FTC teams and could have 3 if we wanted to. Both teams have made it to the Super Regional and competed against the 18 year old students. One of our teams had the highest qualifying score at the event and they scored a majority of those points. Middle school students are very capable of competing against high school students.

We are a home schooled group. We don't receive the funding like everybody else. We are able to gain sponsors though. That being said, I would rather the kids gain sponsors than to rely on the state to support us. The sponsors we have currently see the importance of what we are doing and have increased yearly the funding.

Please don't knock what FiM is trying to do. Give it a try. I remember when FiM went to the district model, people weren't happy. Many said it was the end of FIRST. Change is always difficult at first but when you give kids the chance, they are pretty resilient and can rise to the challenge. I have kids who are autistic and 1 who is dealing with cerebral palsy. They are handling it just fine. In fact they win the Inspire Award 3 years in a row at a district level.