Mentoring
Opportunities for Learning, Inspiration and Integration
Dena Lehrman
Project Mentor:
Rabbi Ephraim Levitz
ATID Fellows
2002- 2003
Mentoring
Opportunities for Learning, Inspiration and Integration
Dena Lehrman
ATID Project 2003
Last year, my first year as an ATID Fellow, I worked with Steven Esses (ATID Fellow, 2000, 2002) on facilitating the design, development and implementation of multi-sensory workshops within the Orot Etzion Girls School located in Efrat, Israel. We did so by drawing on the hobbies, professional experiences and talents of the parent body to improve upon the school curriculum.
Some of the goals included:
1 To identify the relevant subject material within the present curriculum that can be supplemented by parent run workshops.
2 To identify parents of the student body who could design a workshop drawing on professional experience, life experience or related hobby.
3 To help facilitate the implementation of the workshops.
4. To assess the success of the workshops by feedback received from the classroom teachers and the parents themselves.
5. To encourage the administration to capitalize upon the success of the pilot programs by making the workshops part of the permanent curriculum thereby enabling the teachers to draw upon the resources that we have created and integrate them into the school year.
This year I have implemented the second stage of the workshop project that is described towards the end of this paper. As the workshops in the school were gaining recognition by the staff, students as well as parent body, a new project started to simultaneously take form. The workshops helped to incorporate relevant experiential learning within the context of the curriculum. As I contemplated the goals and success of the workshops, I started to address another aspect of the workshops – the relationship that is forged between a student and an adult other than the school staff. The workshops did not lend themselves to developing a meaningful relationship, other than a one off experience. As such, the idea of developing a student/mentor relationship took form.
The idea was based on two premises. Firstly, that students should be offered the opportunity to voluntarily explore a topic of interest for the inherit sake of asking questions and seeking answers. Secondly, that students can grow academically and emotionally by the experience of exploring a topic under the guidance of a personalized mentor as well as the support and recognition of the school staff. Most of the school day is filled with assignments, tests and research papers. All are graded and follow a set curriculum with defined criteria. The mentoring project that was developed and implemented within the school was found to be surprisingly refreshing for the students. The program was voluntary and while guidelines were given to the students, the final project was not going to be graded. Students did not hesitate to volunteer to be part of this unique experience.
The goals of the mentoring project include:
1. To develop and reinforce curiosity.
2. To transform a topic of interest to something vibrant, relevant and exciting.
3. To expose students to individual in the community who are impassioned about knowledge and learning.
4. To provide role models of individuals who strive to see the relevance of Torah in every aspect of the world and who are amazed by the greatness of Hashem when exploring the world that He has created.
5. To help develop students who can formulate interests and be willing to seek answers to their questions.
6. To provide the student with the opportunity to learn a topic of interest for its own sake without being graded on the task.
7. To develop the cycle of learning – asking questions, seeking answers, receiving positive feedback, viewing oneself as a “learner” and continuing the cycle all over again.
As a result of the extensive legwork done to identify adults in the school community who had specific talents or experience within a certain realm, I felt that we had easy access to individuals who might be interested in functioning as a mentor within our educational setting. I then sat down with the administration in the school and formulated the goals and framework of the mentoring project. The driving principal behind the project was to foster curiosity within the student, with the premise that once a student is hooked into a topic they will be more eager to question and learn in other areas of their schooling. More importantly, they will view themselves as seekers of knowledge, and receive feedback for initiating learning. Curiosity seems to be a driving force that divides between those that are driven and explore and individuals who become more passive or at times apathetic. The downward spiral towards apathy is a frightening one which we see its results in our communities and our schools. Fostering curiosity is therefore the underlying motivation of exposing students to adults who model this enthusiasm, drive and interest. All mainstreamed students, regardless of their academic functioning have a spark of curiosity within. It is the responsibility of the educators to fan that spark as well as to inspire curiosity. The educators need to create an environment in which curiosity can develop and learning can begin. One only needs to observe a young child’s exploration of the world to know that curiosity is a gift from above. The following review of the literature on the development and significance of curiosity was a constant source of inspiration for the development and implementation of my ATID project.
Childhood as a Stage of Development
The Enlightenment period which occurred during the eighteenth century fostered a whole new perspective on childhood. John Lock proposed his well known philosophy that at birth the mind is a blank tablet known as a tabula rasa. It is the responsibility of the adults to fill the slate with knowledge. He felt that all children had the potential to learn and developed a program of apprenticeships for poor children. Lock and his followers viewed childhood merely as a stepping stone into adulthood. Lock viewed literacy, education and reason as the vehicles that transformed the unformed person into a civilized adult. In contrast Rousseau, another great eighteenth-century intellectual influence on the concept of childhood, saw this critical stage in development as important in it’s own right and not only as a means to an end. Rousseau viewed childhood as a unique experience that most closely approximates to the “state of nature”. He emphasized the childhood characteristics of purity, strength, joy and spontaneity. The child innately possesses the capacity for understanding and curiosity, however they are often deadened by the very things that Lock felt formed a person – education, literacy and reason.
As the debate over childhood moved into the nineteenth century, two intellectual strains had formed. One known as the Lockean, or the Protestant conception of childhood, and the other the Rousseauian, or Romantic view of childhood. While most educational institutions adopted the Lockean approach, the Romantic view was ever present in the vision of education.
The advent of the media which includes radio, television, computers and the internet affected the phenomenon of childhood more than anything since the middle ages when children and adults were considered equals. The media exposed children to information that was considered private and only at the disposal of adults. While in the past, literacy allowed the individual to be exposed to all sorts of information, it simultaneously created a gradation between various age levels and stages of cognitive development. One needed to progress slowly and sequentially in order to be able to grasp and understand more sophisticated and mature ideas and experiences. In contrast the television viewer has no restraints of age, cognition, financial or imagination. The child and adult alike experience a common moment. In the past the adults were the source of authority as result of the knowledge they possessed. Today with the vast access of information that children are exposed to on a daily basis, the lines have blurred and the respect for authority has diminished. The gap closed between old and young and everyone is considered part of the same generation.
Curiosity – A Prelude to Exploration
Curiosity is a natural part of childhood. The process of unraveling the mysteries of the world leads to wonderment and further curiosity. This generally happens when there is a clear distinction between the generations and part of the entry into adulthood is through questioning and receiving more pieces of the puzzle. In our generation curiosity has been replaced with cynicism.
The youth of today often feel that they have access to information at their disposal that easily exceeds the knowledge that the teacher possesses. The student approaches the class with a lack of regard for the authority of the teacher. The information that they learn using computers and the internet is often technical in nature and does not enter the students world in a meaningful way. They do not actively engage in uncovering that knowledge but acquire it in a very passive and impersonal way.
In 1994 a headline in the paper read: Clinton Tells Educators Youths are not Getting Practical Skills for Jobs. (New York Times, February 23, 1994, B7.) The article describes the need to give practical vocational skills so that the students can more easily enter the work force. The underlying assumption was that one who learns to be useful economically will be considered an educated person. Neal Postman asserts that this is the wrong solution. Education is about developing adaptable, open, curious and questioning people. Job training does not develop that subset of skills. Costa and Kallick in Describing 16 Habits of Mind attributes curiosity, wonderment and awe about the world as being fundamental to the development of passion and enthusiasm about learning, inquiring and mastering.
In describing the end goals of education, Neal Postman emphasizes the centrality of the questioning process in the evolving student. Everything that we know emotionally and cognitively has its roots in a question. While questions are the principal intellectual instrument available to people, few educational institutions examine in a systematic nature the questioning process. It’s ironic that something so fundamental to the relationship between the human race and the world around us is basically rarely addressed in elementary school, high school or higher education. Teachers are known for presenting material and for asking questions at the end of the lesson. Does the classroom framework ever allow for the self directed questions of the student? Authentic questions often reflect the inner passion waiting to be unleashed and harnessed. Tapping into those questions of a student and channeling it in a healthy direction can have lasting impact not only on the related areas of study in school, but in other aspect of the student’s life. The student who initiates exploration and pursues answers, solutions and uncovers further questions, is a student who awaits the future and takes an active role in its approach. Dr. Bruce Perry in his article Curiosity, The Fuel of Development states, “If a child stays curious, he will continue to explore and discover…. For too many children, curiosity fades. Curiosity dimmed is a future denied. … The less-curious child is harder to teach because he is harder to inspire, enthuse, and motivate.”
Perry notes three common ways that adults crush the natural enthusiasm in a child.
1. Fear: Children who have been effected by war, natural disasters, violence, family distress and a chaotic environment will avoid exploring new things in a positive manner.
2. Disapproval: The negative comments of adults concerning the natural exploration of the world around us including insects, mud, etc. impacts on the perceived values of such interests on behalf of the child.
3. Absence: Children seek the shared discovery, and reinforcement by the significant adults in their life. The presence of caring, invested adults provides that support and encouragement. Children who do not have that adult figure will turn away from exploration and unraveling the mysteries of the world. Instead of branching outward they turn inward.
This paper addresses the third aspect of Perry’s assumption about the development of enthusiasm in a child. – namely, the critical role significant adults play in the life of a child. A child you has a teacher, parent or other adult to model and encourage exploration, will impact on the level of curiosity that the child develops and utilizes in all facets of life.
Perry’s sequential stages of discovery from within and without:
Curiosity / Results in / ExplorationExploration / Results in / Discovery
Discovery / Results in / Pleasure
Pleasure / Results in / Repetition
Repetition / Results in / Mastery
Mastery / Results in / New Skills
New Skills / Results in / Confidence
Confidence / Results in / Self Esteem
Self Esteem / Results in / Sense of Security
Security / Results in / More Exploration
What can we do today in our schools and communities to develop curious and questioning people? How do we contend with a generation of students who have been bombarded with technology? How do we facilitate inquisitiveness? How do we channel the vast amounts of energy that teachers do not know how to handle within the classroom into a very productive activity for growth and learning? How do we develop a student driven to a goal what ever that might be?