Is the Competition being de-emphasized?

[archiver]

Posted by Tom Vanderslice, Student on team #275, ORHS/AST/Hitachi, from Academy of Science and Technology and Hitachi.

Posted on 5/9/99 9:47 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Is the Competition being de-emphasized? posted by MaryEllen on 5/9/99 7:52 PM MST:



I'm gonna have to agree with MaryEllen that passing out medals
at the awards ceremony would have been a logistical nightmare. One thing
they could have done was just have the teams walk across the stage or
something...if they were already lined up before hand that wouldn't have
been a big deal...

BUT..(there's always a but..

I also agree that the competition is being de-emphasized...It seems like
everyone is so concerned that us 'lowly high school kids' might think we
were 'losers' when we lose the competition...so let's pretend like its
not a competition...we'll have all the robots go out there...and some
teams will win and some teams will lose but then in the end we'll pretend
its not important...and then all the kids will think their 'winners' and
everyone will be happy...

News Flash...most...if not all of hte kids out there know the difference
between winning and losing...most of htem are the most competitive kids
in there schools...just as competitive as the athletes...who get mad
when the lose games and are happy when they win games...and most of us
also know the difference between the winners and losers of the
competition and the 'winners' that everyone who shows up with a robot is...
true...everyone who shows up with a robot has done something they should
be extremely proud of...after all the time we spent working on our robot
this year..i was incredibly proud of it...even if it didnt' place well..
and everyone who shows up is a 'winner'...but then you have teh competition..
and by the nature of competition you have winners and losers...one team
(or this year 3 teams) win and everyone else loses...now this doesn't
make them 'losers'...but everyone has a sense of disappointment that they
didn't win...for some it is more severe then others (and i admit...it is
very severe for me)...but in time we all get over it...

Hmm...this is a lot more then i meant to say...but in summary...i think
that FIRST is so concerned that people might feel like losers that they
don't allow the real winners of the competition to feel like winners.

Tom
Team 275