[ChrisH]

I agree with Dave Lavery's post.

FIRST in it's final, culture dominating form will be composed of elite students. BUT some of those students will be elite academians who can reseach problems the team wants solved for next year. Others will be elite engineers who actually build what the academians come up with. Still other will be elite machinists who play a CNC mill the way Hiefitz played a violin. Still others will be elite marketers who can figure out just who on another team is making the strategic decisions and market the team to that group or individual. Still others will be elite .... but I think by now you get the point. They all will contribute to the team goals using the unique talents God has given them.

This elite cadre will not be determined by interview or application. They will be determined by their performance at in-school mini-competitions that have been taking place through-out their educational experience.

That is the ultimate destination. But we're not there yet.

When I was in high school, (back when the dinosaurs roamed) we had to do this thing called "the six minute run" in Physical Education. It was some sort of standard test the state required. But, as I was to find out later, everyone who did more than a mile was asked to try out for the cross-country team. Not everybody did, and not all of those who tried out made it. But everybody in the school was exposed to distance running at least once.

Right now, we cannot say that every student is exposed to science and engineering. I could take you to areas of Los Angeles where many people have never knowingly met an engineer, let alone know in any real way what one does. But from seeing some of the cars and bikes the people who live there come up with, I'll bet that more than a few of them have great potential. They just don't know it.

There are few people who are really good at hitting rocks with sticks that don't know it in this country. But I've seen many who would make pretty good engineers that never thought about becoming one. Because there was no way for them to realize that they were better than other people at being one.

That is part of what FIRST is about. Helping those that excell in the skills required for science and engineering realize that they are good at it, and that it is important, and that by doing what they are good at and enjoy they can change the world.

Some schools already have the problem that they have more students that will benefit from FIRST than they can support. Other schools do not. Each must find a way to do the best for their students. One solution will not work for all.

At this point I don't think teams should be too restrictive about who is on them. But in 10 or 20 years, when you who are students now are complaining to your child's high school principal that the Robot team didn't do well in the citywide competition, and schools are moaning about having dismantled their shops years before, it may be a different story.