[nyaculak]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Then you are missing a big part of FIRST, which is the partnership and interaction between mentor and student.

Allow me to clarify. Our mentors most definitely help our team in essential ways. They work with us constantly, through every step of designing and building our robot. They provide feedback on strategy, feasibility of design ideas, and implementation help. I have a great relationship with our team's mentors; I've probably learned more from them and my 3 years of robotics experience than I have through the rest of my high school career.

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

FIRST is about INSPIRATION, not the ROBOT. How a team is inspired is not relevant. Whether you would be inspired by their method of inspiration is, also, not relevant (unless you are on that team). Whether someone is inspired by watching a real engineer ply his trade, or by putting his own hands on a project is a very personal thing, and one that the mentor has to be acutely cognizant of (and most are).

Inspiration comes in many forms, and what inspires one may not inspire another ... and learning that will make you a better mentor in the future.

I agree with you that FIRST is not about the ROBOT, however, I must respectfully decline your notion that FIRST should be about INSPIRATION. FRC (and all school-aged robotics competitions) should be about LEARNING. Indeed, I believe many students would agree that they would be more "inspired" if they learn more along the way.

On another note, the idea of the "No Mentor" line at competition sounds like a terrific idea. I love having the opportunity to show off that my fellow team members and I possess the skills to create the robot ourselves. It should be noted that this would not be an insult to mentor involvement in FIRST, but rather a testament to how much the mentors have taught us.