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Re: Class Credit for FIRST Participation?
from a mentor-engineer persepective Ive always felt one of the great things about the FIRST program is that its not 'school' - its something else - something unlike all the other things students do in HS.
I would prefer to not have to evaluate the students performance, attitude, effort, or any other aspect that would go into assigning the student a grade.
Two reasons:
1. FIRST has been highly effective in motivating students who had a poor attitude towards school - students who need to be motivated by something different, something they have not gotten in the last 8 to 11 years. If we make FIRST look like another tech class, then instead of seeing mentors as mentors, friends, business contacts and future peers, they will see us as stand-in teachers.
2. The mentors are not here to evaluate the students on any level. Just the opposite: we are presenting our careers and our professions for the students to evaluate.
FIRST is not an educational program, its a career exposure program.
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