[JohnBoucher]

I owe everyone a clarification of my earlier post in this thread. I did not intend to suggest that the community as a whole disregards the constraints of the six weeks. I believe that the majority of our community stay within the six weeks and abide by the fix-it window rules.

If you read many of my posts, or are unfortunate enough to get trapped in a room with me, you will know that I am passionate about the magic of what happens to teams in the six weeks. To me, the six weeks can raise anyone involved to a higher appreciation of themselves. It does not matter if it is your first six weeks or your 10th. The process of the six weeks works magic on the mind.

The changes that I see in students over the six weeks never cease to amaze me. There is nothing else in our school system, including sports, that grips a student and changes their lives like FIRST Robotics and the six weeks. Too often, students are not challenged enough to attain personal growth. The six weeks does this.

The problem, as I see it, is the emphasis of a lot of teams is not with the process, but with winning the competitions. Why does FIRST constantly have to remind us at competitions to bring our gracious professionalism? IMHO it is because they realize that there is misplaced emphasis on winning.

I appreciate the need for competition. We need to validate the designs and execution of what we did in the six weeks. The competitions need to be fun, but go to any regional and you will see a few teams that are not having fun. I see students that get screamed at by their mentors. I see mentors screaming at mentors. Why? To me, this is the emphasis on winning. In conversations with some of these teams, they admit to doing what is necessary to win.

I appreciate the honor system. I know, as in the "real world", there are teams that do not. I feel bad for their students and sponsors. It is their loss.

John
Sorry that this sounded like a rant.