[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by itsjustmrb

Mr. Blake,
I respect everything you do and have done to make 3481 such a respectable robotics program. It is very hard for me to answer your question without asking a question myself.
Do you think it is advantageous to have students from multiple non-uil, private (homeschoolers are considered private schools in Texas) schools on your team?
I do not know the answer to this since our district prohibits non district students from participating in our robotics program.

It's not a question, for me, of "advantageous" or not, since we've had top students of equal contribution from all 3 buckets (public/private/home) over the years and I would expect that to continue.

What it's about is being _cruel_ IMO to private/home school teenagers.

I'll explain... EVERY private/home school student that has been on our team sought us out and explained how much they loved and wanted to do FRC and _asked_ if they could join our team since there would be no other alternative within their area for them to participate in FRC.

IF it's about the teenagers, the kids, IMO it's _cruel_ to turn them away from something where they're hungry and deserving to participate knowing that they'll have _no other_ way to be on an FRC team--that's the way I see it.

--Michael Blake