What do you think it will take for Gracious Professionalism, Coopertition and other FIRST values to really take off?
It depends on who is driving the change and how they are driving. That is big picture thinking and long range planning is involved. Most teams live in the here and now and reflect that in their actions and focus. When they begin, as a community, to focus on bringing those values to a global level, then we’ll see a drive for change and impact.
Jane
They haven’t already? 
already about 400,000 people (not including parents of some 300k students) that are involved in FIRST. Maybe not taken off, but it’s definitely a good dent.
On a note to address the post title, this is exactly why I’m in FIRST. I’m currently a college student and I loveee to build robots, it’s what I’m interested in after college. There are probably about several dozen different robotics competitions I, as a college student, can participate in. Yet I spent my Fall and Spring semesters mentoring a FTC and FRC team.
Why? Because FIRST is unlike any others. Not only does it promote STEM and give students a head start at important skills for future jobs. FIRST promotes a way of life that is completely unheard and frequently un-seen. The article literally says it all, where do you see competitors helping each other?
And I witnessed first-hand with the 7th to 11th graders that I mentor, and took to competition this week. I never even preached the Gracious Professionalism or Coopertition or rooting for other teams at random times to them. Yet they all threw away their voices cheering for teams that weren’t able to cheer for themselves. At every mention of someone winning something, or someone who without the event could not have taken place, I was never the first one to stand up and show respect, these students were. Two of them even stayed back on Thursday, to not go back swimming at the hotel with the team, to help ANOTHER team build their robot.
I get goosebumps thinking about FIRST, and even more so of what I saw this past weekend.
FIRST can change the world, and it already has changed some of it. I encourage everyone to exhibit the FIRST Core Values, not only at competition, but at wherever they go.
I agree. But if the OP wants to see more and wider change then we need to get FIRST teams into every high school and we need to get more students involved in the teams where they do exist.
Yep, that would do it.