Responsibilities of a Mentor

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by CommanderRachek

Clearly, the students on these particular teams were not sufficiently inspired to be bothered to even watch their robots get completed. This is not a theoretical possibility based on conjecture. This is what I have seen with my own eyes.

Our students needed to leave the regional on the bus on Thursday night about an hour before the pits closed, per school rules. The robot was still not ready for competition. They begged and pleaded to stay, but rules are rules, and all of the students went home on the bus. Some mentors fixed the robot that night, and everything was good to go the next day. It just felt wrong the entire time knowing the students couldn't be there, but it had to get done. The students and the mentors both realized that it was for the better of the team to have a working robot.

So, is our team bad? Are the students not inspired?

I would think more carefully before making such offensive blanket statements in the future.