Does Affirmative Action fit under the values of FIRST

[pfreivald]

Always an interesting learning experience when kids (or adults) learn that discrimination is not only unavoidable, it's necessary -- and is often a good thing. (We discriminately give welfare dollars only to the poor, and I think we can all agree that if we're going to be giving welfare dollars to anybody, we might ought to discriminate based on socio-economic status. We discriminate by training/occupation, because we'd rather not have a plumber represent us in court (or a lawyer install our new bathroom). We discriminate by height, weight, and age on amusement park rides. Etc.)

The question isn't whether or not to discriminate in determining membership on a FIRST team. You do that already (even if it's criteria such as 9-12th grade, student at your school or in your district, expresses interest in the team -- that's still discrimination). Some teams do it with other criteria (skills benchmarks, GPA, fundraising dollars). Some teams discriminate by gender (all girls teams, for example, though this discrimination is often de facto through gender-specific schools). I don't know of any teams that discriminate by ethnicity.

Discrimination comes in various categories, and you can come up with a sort of dichotomous key to determine if it is appropriate for whatever it is you're trying to do.

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...and if I did that right, I just completely avoided expressing my own opinions on affirmative action.