The institutionalization of FRC teams, and the toxicity it creates

[Alan Anderson]

I have opinions, anecdotes, and potential suggestions regarding the topic.

I will not share them in a thread based on an anonymous post.

[jtrv]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I have opinions, anecdotes, and potential suggestions regarding the topic.

I will not share them in a thread based on an anonymous post.

Then why make a reply in the first place..?

OT: I think you need to come up with what you want and expect out of FRC. You seem to want to be a good team, but you also want students to learn. Now, these are in absolutely no way mutually exclusive. You have to very carefully balance participating to win and participating to teach. If there are faults somewhere (robot, code, anything), talk about them. Don't leave an elephant in the room. Make sure your students know that if they make a mistake, it's okay, and talking about it isn't a personal attack (if parents need to be told this, then tell them too). This is all I feel comfortable / knowledgeable about regarding this topic, but I hope you can get some help out of it.

[WorldOfRobots]

OP: I think you need to come up with what you want and expect out of FRC. You seem to want to be a good team, but you also want students to learn. Now, these are in absolutely no way mutually exclusive. You have to very carefully balance participating to win and participating to teach. If there are faults somewhere (robot, code, anything), talk about them. Don't leave an elephant in the room. Make sure your students know that if they make a mistake, it's okay, and talking about it isn't a personal attack (if parents need to be told this, then tell them too). This is all I feel comfortable / knowledgeable about regarding this topic, but I hope you can get some help out of it.

I'm no longer a member(I was a student) of this team, I may need to edit my post to make that clear. I'm a current alumni, working with FTC teams instead. I've declined the offer to mentor the team that this post is about. I didn't feel like this was mentor over-participation, which is a whole desperate issue, but not the one I encountered.

Thank you for your advice, though.

[jtrv]

Originally Posted by WorldOfRobots

I'm no longer a member(I was a student) of this team, I may need to edit my post to make that clear. I'm a current alumni, working with FTC teams instead. I've declined the offer to mentor the team that this post is about. I didn't feel like this was mentor over-participation, which is a whole desperate issue, but not the one I encountered.

Thank you for your advice, though.

I see now. Yes, you should edit your post to reflect this information, I got the vibe that you are a mentor of the team and still involved.

[WorldOfRobots]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I have opinions, anecdotes, and potential suggestions regarding the topic.

I will not share them in a thread based on an anonymous post.

I will be happy to talk with you privately, if you wish. I made this post in an attempt to talk respectfully about a problem that I see as fairly common in FIRST, and look for a solution to it that could be embedded in FIRST culture. I did not wish to do that by pointing fingers, and insulting teams.

All I want is a civil discussion, and, like I said, if you message me directly, I will be happy to tell you more specifics.

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I have opinions, anecdotes, and potential suggestions regarding the topic.

I will not share them in a thread based on an anonymous post.

While I understand your concern about the OP specifically, any thoughts you might wish to share could be helpful for other teams struggling with the same issues, or teams who might one day find themselves there and can look back on this thread in the archives.