Page "Tunnel in the Sky" Paragraph 6

All of the students go back willingly except for Rod, who has great difficulty reverting from the status of head of a small, but sovereign state to a teenager casually brushed aside by the adult rescuers.

However, his teacher ( and now brother-in-law ) and his sister persuade him to change his mind.

His teacher also informs Rod that his warning against " stobor " (" robots " spelled backwards ) was just a way of personalizing the dangers of an unknown planet-to instill fear and caution in the students.