What is "FIRST"?

[Rion Atkinson]

It has come to my attention that not everyone understands what FIRST is about. Some think that this FIRST organization is about the competition, and about winning. My head coach said just the other day “Boeing and our other sponsors give us money so that we can win”, but this is not the reason. Our sponsors give us money not so that we can win, not for the advertisement*, but for the chance of better employees.

This organization was not created for us students to have another sport to play in. It was created for us to learn, for us to understand how things in the real world will work, and how to deal with it. For us to be able to think deeply and solve problems, but this focus is being lost. Our students and mentors alike are beginning to lose focus. I am not saying this is happening everywhere. Just here and there.**

What is FIRST?

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology means just that. It does not mean let’s win by any means. It does not mean that we are here to get out of the house. It means we are here to Inspire! We are not here to say “Let’s win this!” We are here to say “Let’s learn this!” So why can we not keep that thought? Why is it that all the mentors on my team care more about us willing than us learning? Why do these mentors take the idea of “telling, not helping” when they mentor us? How can we keep this thought process?

When my Head Coach says “We are given money to have a better chance of winning, am I right Rion?” and I reply “No, we are given money so that we have a better chance of learning” and he gets mad, it honestly scares me. And when I talk to him later in the meeting and explain what FIRST is in my opinion and how this team is not showing that, and that our students are not learning as much as they could be because the mentors are hindering them his response was “Well. I’m sorry you feel that way. But you are a different kind of person.“ And I am pretty sure that my team is not the only one going off track. Am I correct? If not, please, by all means delete this thread. But I am not here to tell you what is going on, I am here to ask you how to fix it.

How can we keep our team members, and mentors alike, on track as to what FIRST is? How can we ensure that our students will learn to the best of their ability? Does anyone have any ideas? Because I am personally out of all of my ideas, I keep just hitting brick walls. I have been called crazy because of my understanding of why we are here. Am I the problem? Is it that my idea of FIRST’s purpose is mistaken?

I do apologize if it sounds like I am just throwing my dirty laundry out there to dry, I am not meaning to. This was really the only way I say to get my point across, and ask for help.

In confusion,
-Rion

*Let's be real, they don’t get very much advertisement from this.
**I know that the majority of teams at the OKC regional are losing focus. Or just never had it, we are still a young regional.