[Chief Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

This example illustrates a different lesson: the value of institutional knowledge and wisdom. It's the real reason why we have mentors. Students can have great ideas, but with a 6-week deadline, we all need to pare branches of decisions. A mentor's role at least in part is to say "we tried that before you were here and it didn't work." And what do students learn from that? A lesson often lost in this Internet age when everyone thinks they can become an instant expert thanks to Google--that an older individual with wisdom can have an important role. What a mentor has to do is watch for overstepping the bounds on original creativity.

Love this comment.