I feel that the GDC should require drivers to be in high school. Limiting drivers to high schoolers would benefit the team in whole because it gives more members (in the long run) the opportunity to participate. If a team gets a great driver, they are often kept as the driver through their robotics career (their talent + their experience make it hard to top). I don't think anyone should be a driver for more than four years. This would make more variety as years pass and hopefully every middle school member would continue into high school and have the opportunity at that point.
I also feel that if a driver cannot see because he/she is young I believe no accommodations should be made but to simply wait for them to grow. Having said this, if another team had a driver on a stand to see I wouldn't have a problem with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eagle33199
And on a personal rant... We all want every kid to be successful in everything they do. But the truth of the matter is they aren't. Sometimes things don't work out, sometimes (like this example) the situation is simply set up against them. All too much these days our society sets up scenarios where kids will be successful or win regardless of what they actually do. We want them to be successful, so we lower the bar until everyone can be successful. Sure, it makes everyone feel good, but is it really helping the kids prepare for adulthood? If a kid is legitimately too short to be able to drive a robot, could this not help serve as a life lesson on managing expectations and understanding how to be successful (say, as part of the pit crew) despite these challenges?
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This I disagree with. Although you want to ready students for the real world, I think the message we want to send isn't that they are out of luck because they're short, but with inventions and innovation (ramps and platforms included) we can do anything.