Grades and Student Travel, Etc

[Kelly]

The implication throughout this thread has been that anyone in FIRST who doesn't have fantastic grades is only doing badly in school because he or she is too lazy to do better. I'm sure there are many of these kids, as I've met a few on my team. But we're leaving out another group of kids, that is also very well represented on team 1418. These are the kids who are quite smart, and put a lot of effort into school but, for various reasons, still have trouble maintaining grades. Intelligence manifests itself in all sorts of ways, only one of which is rewarded in a school setting. A student could have fantastic mechanical skills, or be really good at reasoning, but have trouble recalling facts and applying algorithms quickly and in complete sentences. Is it really fair to include this sort of student from FIRST, whose unique talents would be a huge help on any team, because he or she isn't smart in the exact way school expects students to be.

I'm not saying forming complete sentences isn't useful, I just think it's no reason to exclude anyone from FIRST