Quote:
Originally Posted by OScubed
But the whole idea of FIRST (imho again) is to mold our future leaders, scientists and technologists. Yes it's a competition - but not one that should sacrifice the win for allowing a student to feel the achievement of leading that win.
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As a student coach for the past 2 years (this past year being my last as I am graduating), I am a strong advocate for student coaches, and I find it refreshing to read a post from a mentor supporting student coaches.
I know that as a student I have gained so much more from the FIRST program as a coach than I would have if I remained lead strategist (as I was my first 2 years on the team). I know that the experience I gained working with my team (pit crew, scouting, programming etc. - which are all also student run btw), and cooperating with other teams on the field has greatly enhanced my potential as an engineer in the future. I believe every student should have a chance at this opportunity.
As for the argument that I've read about "putting a mentor on the field to give the greatest chance of reward through success", who's success is it if the only variable in winning or losing is the student or mentor on the field? If it is the mentor that makes the difference, should the students really feel all that much better about a win than a loss? If a win is accomplished only because a mentor is on the field, I don't see that as a win, I see that as a lost opportunity for a student to learn from an experience.
Finally, there is one exception to the best thing for the team to have a student on the field is if the drive team is new or the team is to small that a mentor needs to be on the field as a necessity for the team to function. That being said I've been to regionals with 50+ students on teams, where I see a mentor coach working with other mentor coaches on the alliance, and I know that one of the students sitting scouting in the stands, or handing out buttons in the pits, or waiting for the pizza to arrive, could be on the field gaining experience they will need in their future careers as engineers.
-- PS, while I don't at all agree with choosing a mentor or student as coach based on how good it will make the team, I may as well point out that in my first regional as coach in 2007 our team was the #1 seed for the first time in team history (we ended up going on to win the regional), and this past year I coached an almost entirely new drive team where we were picked up as the first choice in alliance selection at our first regional - not to boast myself, I had relatively little to do with it, it was the evolution of the team and the maturing of the students as professionals in each of their leadership roles that allowed these successes to happen.