[JaneYoung]

Teachers deserve respect and students who don't even try are a slap in their faces.

Teachers are my personal heroes and have been since my early days.
Our lead teacher founded our robotics team 14 years ago. He uses a lot of common sense in working with our students and in helping them. One thing he does is network with other teachers, following how they are doing all year and esp. during build, competition and afterwards when the real crunch hits and projects are due, finals are looming. And he doesn't just keep tabs on the team during the competition season, he keeps tabs on them throughout their high school career and post graduation - college, technical school, working - into their careers. It's called caring.

If the reputation were to develop that our FIRST team allows/encourages slacking and blowing off school responsibilities, I don't think it would be long before educators, engineers, sponsors, and politicians would lose interest in the program. Students who struggle to achieve are vastly different from students who don't care and don't apply themselves. On our team, we look at how we can support the individual and how we can support the team effort. They work together.