[EricH]

FYI: There is a spotlight somewhere on here about "your second year as a student is your first year as a mentor." So, if FIRST is for students only, then only freshmen are allowed on teams. This is not the case.

DanTod, the problem you see is not a problem necessarily. Remember, there is absolutely no rule about team makeup (other than drive team makeup) or who can work on the robot. Also, there may be factors such as a critical repair needing to be made and the students needing to be fed at the same time. There is nothing that can disqualify a team from competing based on makeup/who does the work.

I am with Leav, to a point. I am a mentor. I prefer to let the students do the work, but I will step in if something needs to be done. I was in the pit most of the time, but I was mainly observing. However, improvements sometimes need to be made. So, I step in with the students at least observing, if not actively participating in the changes. Would you disqualify a team because mentors help? I think not! Especially because that isn't what you said. Just some teams, the mentors seem to do the work, but do they really? As I said, there may be other factors.

I think that you should think about what others have said in this thread. There are many, many valid points on both sides of this issue.