FAHA: No effort and all the benefit?

[R2K2D2]

This is a very common problem with FIRST teams, I know our team has faced the same issue in previous years. What we have done is created a student handbook, and in this handbook are all the requirements that students must meet as participants on this team. This directly correlates to attendance at competitions. As Chris said earlier, competitions are a reward for the hard work and effort. The first major requirement is a grade requirement. The student has to be getting a minimum of a certain set GPA with certain set grades for classes taken that semester. A special progress report is taken by each student to their teachers and filled out and turned in. Then, the next requirement is attendance. The Technical Applications Team has created an on-line attendance program that monitors when students were working, for how long, and what they did. This gives the team direct evidence when having to make an attendance decision. If a student forgets to sign in, their loss, it is their responsibility to remember and follow through with it.

If I were you present your evidence to this student and their parents, and make a decision from there. I don't feel that I can tell a student no unless I have a proven/documented reason why they shouldn't. This is why the attendance monitoring system is important.

[sanddrag]

Just a couple of side notes. One, school isn't everything. While several people with low grades and GPAs and who are failing courses may not be deserving of a spot on the robotics team, there are a few that are very talented in other areas than academics. Robotics may be the key to opening them up to a whole new world. A slight bit, this ties in with my point number two. There was a spotlight on here (I think by M. Krass) that went "think not of what the student does for the team but what the team can do for the student" At the Phoenix regional, that guy from Microchip said something I will never forget, "FIRST is about making you all become more productive citizens" If that student with D's and F's is never given that chance to shine, perhaps they never will. One may say that "so what, this failing student had the same opportunity in school as everyone else who is passing" but one needs to remember that different people excel in different areas. It is impossible to custom tailer schooling to each student but trying at least a little certainly doesn't hurt anything. Nobody is good at everything, and everyone isn't good at the same thing. Besides, FIRST has an "I" for Inspiration not an "E" for Elitism. The student mentioned here seems like he just needs to be Inspired.

I sincerely apologize if I have gotten a bit off topic but you know when the fingers go a typin'...