Grades and Student Travel, Etc

[CommanderRachek]

Originally Posted by D.J. Fluck

Sure there are idiots with 4.0s and geniuses with 2.5s, but don't put yourself into a position where a company will just blow you off.

This brings up a sentiment I myself have at times attempted to impart upon several of my teammates (including the illustrious Phrontist): sometimes (not always) it's easier to just jump through the dang hoop. This is something which I believe, though I believe it less now than I did two or three years ago.

That notwithstanding, I do not believe that any student anywhere should be put in a position where they feel obligated to jump through an irrelevant hoop (e.g. math class) in order to get something that is actually important (e.g. FIRST). The choice to do the math (or history, or physics, or English) work should be just that: a choice; specifically it is a choice to use time now in order to possibly (not definitely) broaden one's future options.

In my experience, meaningless assignments are what contribute to the bulk of most classes' grades, and true intellectualism (by which I mean learning for learning's sake) is either ignored or actively discouraged, except by an enlightened few. FIRST is one of the few venues that are available to high school students for true intellectual growth. By introducing a mandatory minimum GPA, a FIRST team is almost invariably going to exclude the students that would benefit most from it: the kids who are sick and tired of playing this ridiculous, pseudo-academic game and want to actually learn something. I happen to be one of these kids, along with (if I may be so bold as to do some conjecturing) every single other member of team 1418, past and present. This is not to say that we are the only students who feel this way: to the contrary, I believe such students are all over the place, and that nearly all of them feel much of the same frustration that I do.

A good GPA will almost always open a few doors for you in the future, but it will very often lead to closed doors in the present: time lost to busywork cannot be devoted to something valuable and interesting. On top of that, the doors that good grades do open can usually be opened some other way. If they can't, they are worthless.