@ jwmay,
I totally agree with you. We all mentor differently. That's what makes the world go round. I wouldn't dare think of telling you how to mentor anyone.
This is a public forum and Racer is reading all the posts so he's hearing your advice as well as mine. And you're right, I have stated clearly that I don't even know if I can build this thing myself. I do believe that I told Racer that. It's up to him to decide if he wants to hear anything further I might have to say.
I suppose from a purely legal perspective you may indeed be correct. However, I personally consider people based on how mature they appear to be in their conversations and intent. Racer approached us with his ambition. I didn't suggest to him that he should start out building a Curta Calculator. But if that's his passion I'm not going to insult him telling him that he's just a child and should not dream so big.
I know what I was capable of at his age and with the proper mentoring I could have taken on a project like this myself. Like Racer my greatest limitations back then were lack of finances and mentors who would BELIEVE in me.
I also agree with you that most average people do need to learn things on an extremely slow time frame. I'm not one of those people. I was always held back by educational systems, precisely because they didn't want to move forward at a pace that suited me lest everyone else would be left in the dust.
For all I know Racer is a genius beyond his years. Can you say with certainty that he's not?
How many high school students do you know who are even THINKING about making a Curta Calculator from scratch? The mere fact that he even wants to do this speaks volumes to me.
Maybe all he needs is some positive encouragement and a financial kick start. He might be the next Elon Musk for all I know.
If he wants to build a Curta Calculator I'll be the last person on earth to try to talk him out of it.
If he fails, so what? It won't be the end of the world. If he doesn't learn a lot about machining he will at least have learned not to bite off more than he can chew.
And who knows, he might surprise us all and build one of these things better than any of us could do it. You never know until you try.
I'm just trying to help him with what he ASKED for help on. I'm not going to discourage him and tell him he can't do it. He seems to be into it pretty heavy. He must have a passion for it. He's got all the drawings and clearly a desire to do it.
Most kids his age are out on the streets causing people trouble. He wants to spend his summer building a Curta Calculator. Gotta at least give him that much. Tell me this is what your AVERAGE high school student dreams of. I think not.