Keep FIRST in Michigan (FiM) from killing FIRST Lego League

[gblake]

Ed,

You (and the other folks who liked what you wrote) and I are pretty far apart on this topic. Because this general subject has been a raw nerve for me for quite a while, a combative tone probably shows up in what I write.

It's not personal. I do have some strong opinions about the subject(s); but please don't mistake those opinions for a dislike of Ed Law (or Tom Line, or Weberr, or ...)

Originally Posted by Ed Law

I think the discussions here boils down to who should have control over decisions.

I think I might use those exact same words, but mean something significantly different than you meant.

Originally Posted by Ed Law

... we will have to make FLL K-8, FTC 5-12 and FRC 6-12, and parents will decide what they want to sign up. It is all about having control. Is that practical? No...

Two thoughts:

A) The first of the two is a question. Who is the "we" you mention? What are they responsible for? and who made them responsible for it?

B) The second of the two is a disagreement. My answer to whether "that" is practical is this, "Obviously and unambiguously, yes, it is." Without actually poring through the rule books to double-check, with two minor exceptions I think those grade ranges are exactly the ranges the entire rest of planet Earth is using running their FIRST programs/activities.

The two exceptions that I think I see are 1) I think FLL normally goes up through 9th grade (mostly outside of North America?), and 2) I am not aware of a lower age/grade limit on any FIRST program.

Leading up to my next question, I'll suggest that the Michigan schools are experts at dealing with the ages of students on school teams; that they have been experts for decades, and that they can almost certainly continue to handle that matter on their own.

I'll also reiterate that the rest of the world seems to doing just fine using the standard FIRST age/grade ranges. Was I napping when FIRST or some other group announced that FIRST's programs, event partners, etc. were having big problems caused by using those grade ranges? In all the success stories and other (well-deserved) praise I have read in this thread, I haven't seen one single thing described that (IMO) required mandatory changes in team age/grade ranges.

So, in addition to asking the "we" question above, I would sincerely like to learn what specific problem is being affected by FiM trying to change FIRST's age/grade ranges?

Blake
PS: I was trying to wait for a reply from Gail before writing anything new in the thread, but couldn't fight the feeling.

I continue to hope that Gail or someone will shoot me a copy of the presentation(s)/proposal(s)/whatever that FiM used to pitch their plans to the Michigan government, and to others; plus a copy of the arithmetic they used when deciding to recommend the initiatives in that/those documents.

In the request I sent to Gail, I speculated that some of the material would contain items reasonable people might debate. I also speculated that the info in that material would probably also supply the clarity that could short-circuit threads like this one.