[Mr. Van]

I see that this discussion has drifted to become another "mentor built vs. student built" thread. I'm sure that this is not what John was talking about.

I believe that at the heart of the matter is what FIRST is about.

Inspiration.

Sometimes people are inspired by that which is incredible. Other times they are discouraged. Once I saw 148's video, I must admit that my first reaction (after "WOW!!) was "how can we compete against that?"

And then came the questions: "how did you...?" "Is that a....?"

And then cam the answers. Detailed answers. Things that I started saying "humm... we can try to do that next year". (And my regard and respect for people like JVN continued to go up.)

I was being inspired.

But getting over that hurdle can be difficult if you focus on the competition. This may be part of what some people these so-called "haters" are feeling sore about. There is a clear if indeed fine line between mentors who make their program about winning a robotics competition and mentors who make their program about inspiring and changing the lives of their team members and others. The fact that the latter can be accomplished by making it seem that you are doing the former is one of the great things about competitive robotics. It is why many of us keep doing what we do.

I will once again put the idea out there. If you are part of one of the teams that others "hate on" then YOU go out and change their mind. It might be a greater challenge than building a blue-banner robot, but it can be just as rewarding - perhaps even more so.

-Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox