[smurfgirl]

Jane, thanks for starting this thread. You've explained everything very well, whereas I can imagine a lot of ways this could turn into conflict. I do think this concept needed its own space for discussion.

On it's own, "we're all winners" doesn't mean much. It's an empty and meaningless phrase if applied as compensation for a team's lack of high ranking. However, there is much more to success and to FIRST than how high you place at a competition. Did your team meet your goals in building your robot, did your team members learn something new, did the program push individuals to personal growth and new values, have your team members been inspired? All of these things are signs of success, and if these things happen, then yes, you can consider yourself winner in some sense. Is "we're all winners" the best way to explain this? Not really. Some of the other things adults have said like "you tried your best and we're proud of you for that" and direct statements addressing the positive achievements are much better substitutes. Winning is best used for the black-and-white concept of first place, whereas specific and meaningful statements are better used to describe achievements like "this is the fastest robot we have ever built", or "we finally made an autonomous mode that does what we want it to", or "we were able to spread our inspiration to our community this season".