I feel this needs to be said...(Grades & FIRST Dedication)

[Matt Krass]

Hi Everyone,
Me on the podium again, try to stay awake

Lately I’ve been noticing a trend. People are bragging about dedicating so much time to FIRST that they’re failing classes, or being denied credit for absences. I don’t understand this. Why are you proud to be surrendering your education? It angers me because it gives off an image to parents and schools that FIRST is going to hurt your education. This is not the image we want. It also makes me wonder if FIRST is losing its integrity, because while FIRST’s mission statement may not always seem clear, it never was or will be to work against education. It also bothers me because I try very hard to balance FIRST and school work. Not just for my grades, but for the school boards of the teams I work with, and for my parents and friends. It bothers me that I’m working so hard to present it as something educational, when people are writing it off and presenting the exact opposite image. I don’t understand, finally, why you would want that?

Folks, honestly, FIRST is great, but your education is more important. That diploma, and the degree you can get from college is going to go a lot further when you need a job than being able to drive a robot, or shoot a Poof ball in to a goal. You can be the best CAD modeler on your team, but you’re not going to get a job on that. Getting a degree for it by taking CAD classes in college will get you that job.

Please, get your priorities straight. School, then FIRST. Not the other way around.

Thank you,
Matt

[Beth Sweet]

Matt,

As I perhaps am thought of as one of such "guilty parties" I would like to clear up this misunderstanding.

I don't think that people are trying to impress you in saying that they're failing classes etc. but rather to warn others to watch out for their mistakes. FIRST (at least in my mind) is really a family, and family always has each other's backs. When big brother or sister screws up, they make sure little brother or sister doesn't follow in their oops footsteps. And honestly, I think that's what is going on. We are trying to warn people that even we, (including DJ who many think of as "supermentor" or "god") couldn't handle some of this... We couldn't pull it off. I think that we're trying to give real life examples to try to make people think again.

I'm pretty sure that no one in this program would brag about poor scholastic performance. This is the "Superbowl of Smarts" afterall!

[Tetraman]

I'm sure that many FIRST members find their grades fall slightly during build periods. I would understand it. It's one thing to fall, it's another thing to flatten your grades completely by forgetting your school work. After FIRST each year, I was albe to blast a new vision inside of me and I do even better before FIRST. It's kinda bad that we talk like we are bragging our slight grade mishaps, but it makes people more aware.

[Jonathan Norris]

Yea, this is definitely a major misconception about FIRST. One of the happiest moments for our mentors (teachers) this year was when they found out that every single person's average on the Robotics team during the second term (which coincides with the season) went up. I think that this was a product of the students having to be much more organized and manage their time better during the season. Hey, FIRST even helped my marks .

[GeorgeTheEng]

School, then FIRST. Not the other way around.

I totally agree with this statement. I, along with the teachers on my team, make that point at least 1 or twice at parent meetings in the beginning of the year. We usually have at least 1 slow week as our school has finals for single semester classes during the build season.

I've told my kids that Classes need to come first and before we go on trips the kids have to get academic releases from thier teachers. I've also told them that if they have problems, esp in Math and Science classes, that the mentors will help them out if they ask.

Besides, every class provides a basis of knowledge for FIRST activities. Name any class and I bet in 80-90% of the cases I can tie the skills there to something that can/should/is done during a FIRST season.

Of course, this all goes only for the students... Mentors are expected to know better... If they decide to let school (or work) lapse, they should understand the consequences as they are adults.

School first, FIRST second...

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Our team has a grade requirement policy. Simply put... you MUST maintain a C or higher in every class or you are on academic probation... no robotics until the grades are up. If you fail a class for a quarter or semester, you're off the team for that season. This is Sherrard's eligibility requirements and the team has adopted them. So I hope not to see any of team 648's members boasting about dropping grades due to FIRST dedication.

[themagic8ball]

Our school has the same policy ^. Our main programmer was not able to attend Nationals for this reason and we found it very hard without him.

[coastertux]

I agree with all of you who say school is before robots. My team stresses this and we make sure the students know that if they have to miss a meeting to do school work, they should do so. I actually find that I do better during the build season because I am forced to manage my time in a more efficient manner. My school also requires an academic release from teachers before students can miss school for a "field trip."

[Katie Reynolds]

On 857, the grade requirement is a C average AND no F's. Everyone's grades are checked the week before we travel.

[Chaos204]

I am not so sure bragging is the right word to describe what we do when we talk about falling grades during season, its more like reminiscing. When the team and i talk about grades we laugh about the change in grades because it is a relatively small change and its understandable. there is a lot of brainpower being used during the build season so it is normal.

The problem is when the grade change is more than a few points that is when there needs to be a change in priorities.

[travis48elite]

I would also have to agree with this, during this current season we had to keep students from attending the regionals. A few dislike the teachers from doing this but it is our team policy if they want to travel. Also the teachers on our team want the students to succeed after FIRST, especially with our team leader. Although it hurts to see some of my friends on the team put in around +100 hours into helping with the robot and not travel. But in the long run it is for their own good!

[Dan Petrovic]

166 says FIRST doesn't come first. School does.

I know... it's a nasty pun, but it gets the message through.

I'm guilty of having grades drop during build season, but I easily bring it back up afterwards. This year was horrible. My english teacher could not have picked a worse time to assign a Research Paper...

[Jherbie53]

Your school work comes first, even if your in college. I think that most teams would have a policy that you need to be passing your classes in order to go. We have something like that, I'm not completely sure about the final answer on it. If your in college and mentoring, like me, your school work comes first. I did schedule my classes around the season, knowing when we worked late and when we didn't, but I did get my work done.

If anyones grades start to drop, because of the build season or anytime during the year, the team should help them bring their grades up. We will help any of our team members when they need it.

Anyhoo, my final thoughts are, that if you are failing a class or your grades are going down, then you need to do something about it. FIRST is not a class that the schools offer, its a extra event thats designed to give the students a look at other careers. To quote just about everybody, "School first, FIRST second."

[Lea103]

team 103 also emphasizes the need for school to come first. there is a minimum gpa to join the team and the mentors (who are teachers at the school) try to make sure that all members make at least honor role every semester.

[Steve S.]

our team doesnt have a grade req. Thankfully. If we did we'd lose prolly half our team (yeah thats bad)....not me

Now, i dont see where we need a minimum gpa to join a team, thats not right, but having a min. gpa to go to competition is fine, all teams should have that....