[Lil' Lavery]

I hate to perpetuate the off-topic tangent of athletics compared to FIRST, but I feel that a few of the people who have posted in this thread have a belief that is mildly disturbing to me. I don't think the point of FIRST was to entirely replace athletics, and I don't think that FIRST should ever replace athletics. By saying people need to re-evaluate their priorities for supporting athletics over FIRST, your essentially saying that athletic teams should be put in the same shoes many of these struggling FIRST teams are in (or more to the point, not exist, as many school don't have FIRST teams but do have athletics).
It would be great if FIRST had the same funding, publicity, and support as the athletic teams, but I don't think FIRST should usurp their place entirely. Sure, there are lessons in FIRST that are much harder to get, if possible at all, from sports. But sports have value in our society too.
Chief Delphi is a community primarily composed of people on the intellectual side of the spectrum. And as such, a heavy value is placed upon intellectual priorities, resulting in great value for FIRST, an intellectual and educational program. But, these intellectual and educational programs are only part of what is needed to create a functioning society as a whole.
Even on the simplest, most direct level athletics has values that FIRST does not possess. Athletic programs emphasize physical activity, physical activity that helps break up the average American's increasingly sedentary life style. While FIRST is not entirely devoid of physical activity, claiming it has the same value for physical fitness as athletics would be ludicrous. This is just one example of the value of athletic programs.
To say that any society that funds athletic programs over FIRST needs to reorganize their priorities is a dramatic view.