No, not anymore.
You may ask, “Even if I judge a different division from my child or students?” No, not even then.
It’s noble that you want to help us: in general, more judges make for better judging. But in the past when we’ve allowed (or asked) parents/teachers to judge, we’ve had problems:
- The appearance of favoritism or bias. Other people see you judging; they’re upset that you might be scoring your own students too well or their students too poorly. Soothing upset parents is no fun for us; and on Fair Day we don’t need the distraction — we’re busy running the Fair. And so to avoid these problems we can’t allow you to judge.
- Checking or recording scores. Your students are seniors (for example), so you think it should be okay for you to judge junior exhibits. That reasoning is sound, as far as it goes. However, we compile all the judges’ scores on wall sheets in one room; you wouldn’t be human if you weren’t tempted to peek at the senior scores, to see how your students stack up against their competition. We’ve had adult sponsors and parents succumb to the temptation before; that’s why we can’t allow you into the judges’ room, and thus can’t allow you to judge.
So, no: because you have participating students, we can’t let you judge. However, there are many other ways you can volunteer to help us, and we need your help!