CiRCE 2010 Conference: “Mentor” by Vigen Guroian
HG Mentor
Summary
Thesis: We must recapture the saltiness of the word & commend mentor as an office in service of genuine freedom & humanity.
Characteristics A mentor * initiates the relationship; he choses who he will mentor * initiates a hierarchical, asymmetrical relationship, not a friendship * an authority to whom the mentee willingly submits * is a master with a protege * gives herself entirely over to engendering in her pupil the crucial characteristics to the continuance of the art or way of life she is passing on
The Greek origin of the word connoted mind or spirit, purposefulness, agency, being a guide
Examples from Literature
Odyssey: Athena (wisdom) takes the disguise & name of Mentor to fortify Telemachus to resist the suitors & prepare him to succeed his father as a good and just ruler
Charlotte’s Web: Charlotte is the wise teacher, giving more to Wilbur than he could give her, but for his love; Charlotte picked Wilbur out to be saved and made the unilateral decision to make a difference in his life.
Jungle Book: Python, Panther, & Bear were Mowgli’s mentors, his constant companions; they prepared him for his return to his own kind. Each give him knowledge & skill to find his place both in the jungle & the human world.
Bambi (the original is stoic, not romantic or sentimental): The old stag selects Bambi to succeed him as protector of the herd, strictly due to his judgement that Bambi has the potential; so, with dispassion & objectivity, he reposes in Bambi the knowledge and special skills to continue the line of princes by engendering courage, cunning, attentiveness, patience, vigilance.
Go Down Moses, by Faulkner (a haunting tale where the old are numinous & the personification of wisdom): The mentor engages in the tutelage of his student in the art and ritual of the hunt. Faulkner captures the numinous & transcendental aspect of the mentoring process through the power of liturgy & eschatological time; by the end, the initiate realizes with reverence the eternal dimension of his art.
Conclusion: This world has sacred, spiritual depth & significance, the knowledge of which it is the role of the mentor to pass on to his pupils. By this image of the mentor, we recognize that freedom is no mere platitude, but that sacred ground upon whic personality grows out to others, signifying a being that is more significant than that which ever meets the eyes.
Our Application
How does this affect us, who have been divinely given those whom we are charged to mentor? Of course, I was also thinking as I listened that I need to remember to establish mentoring relationships when I am done with this parenting gig, too, whether that be church girls or volunteering at the crisis pregnancy center or some such. There will be life after the children are grown, I hear.
She gives herself entirely over to engendering in her pupil the crucial characteristics to the continuance of the art or way of life she is passing on.
We mothers are not crowd control, not mere managers, but we should be passing on a way of life to our students. So it behooves us to involve them in ourselves, in our life, in our thinking. I’ve been rereading Raising Godly Tomatoes lately and that dovetails nicely with this concept of mentoring. The temptation is so great to send the children off to play so they are out of our hair and we can get something done around here, and while I do think there can be a time and a place for that, if that becomes are primary tactic, our ingrained habit, we risk simply overseeing the safe growing up of our children rather than establishing and nurturing relationships with them. It is better to think of our children as our apprentices, to whom we are passing on our wisdom and way of life, along the way as we ourselves are learning it.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Discussion
Feel free to participate in this discussion, whether you have listened to this talk or not, by leaving a comment or reading the entries of other participants, all linked at Brandy’s blog.
I have gotten alot of wisdom from raising godly tomatoes but I prefer the original name of ” A trip to the woodshed”. :)
Hi Mystie!
Sorry it took me so long to hop over here–I had company this weekend.
I really like the connection you made with tomato-staking. I will have to remember that we are, as you say, “passing on a way of life.” Sometimes that I easier to visualize with girls than boys–I don’t expect my sons to grow up and manage a house the way I do! But that doesn’t mean I don’t have wisdom that transcends their little worlds that I ought to share with them.
I again thought of Charlotte Mason, and how so many of her lists concerning what we ought to be passing on in this or that area contain abstract items–virtues, character qualities, and so on. It leaves a lot of mystery to teaching, in a way, because these things are not measurable, and children don’t always say what they are thinking.
Which makes me want to spend more time in prayer over all of this.
I appreciate your summary here. I wish I had been able to take notes. This week shall be better!