[James Tonthat]

In my opinion, FIRST is about teaching leadership, ethics, and responsibility. Now this may not be the official mission of FIRST but I think it's what it does best. It may teach kids how to build robots but that's not a real skill that students are going to use down the line in their life. I personally wouldn't mind a robot that was 100% mentor/adult made as long as it was led up and directed wholely by students. It really depends on team to team, if a team can teach skills reuseable by students (CAD, CAM, filming, etc.) then I would think it would be the obligation of the mentors to do their best to pass on these traits.

This is my second year in FIRST and my FIRST year as a "mentor" you can see my opinion as one of inexperience or as an opinion through a pair of fresh eyes.