[jpetito]

Thank you all for your most excellent observations and insight. No slight is meant on my part for any comments made by any of you.

One of our struggles here in the SoCal is the almost complete dismantling of what we call in other places Vocational Education or more simply Shop Class. That erosion affects our ability to convince administrators of the need to allow us to produce a FRC event at their school or within their school district(s). It's difficult for many of the academically-minded to grasp the need for skills in mechanical aptitude, wrench turning, welding, wiring, plumbing, etc.

We count schools as potential FRC event sites, but that does not get to the heart of the matter: Educators here expect every kid to get ready to go to the university and get a degree and pull themselves out of the educator's visualization of "underclass," associated in their minds with Blue Collar work. Anything less is a distraction, pulling down test scores at their school. Why bother with this sideshow (FRC) that messes up the school biosphere?

My frustration with the above has been how this kind of work is necessary and legitimate and a place needs to be found for it during the regular-day core of classes in the public school. My focus seems like a "sideshow of a sideshow," but the lack of interest by educators in this kind of education (FRC) has made for wider gaps in student's ability to employ themselves after obtaining the high school diploma.

Having these portable shops at venues whether District or Regional has opened the eyes of many school administrators and teachers about the need for teaching these skills. The spectacle in the playing arena is supported by the pits and these portable shops, and the whole thing is a circular ecosystem. Once admn/teachers/the educator intelligentsia grasp the concept we will start to get back what we've been cutting for the last forty years. That will in turn give us the ability to educate all young people in remunerative skills and lessen the so-called Poverty Gap.

Thanks all for volunteering your time for a kind of education lost in a lot of places in the USA.

Joe
Repurposer of Weird Gear