All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

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10 Milton, S.H. (2001). Art in the context of Theresienstadt. In A.D. Dutlinger (Ed.), Art, music and education as strategies for survival: Theresienstadt 1941-1945 (pp. 10-59). New York, NY: Herodias. Wix, L. (2009). Aesthetic empathy in teaching art to children: The work of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis in Terezin. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 26(4), 152-158. Drawings Drawing 1: Retrieved from http://orpheus. ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp Drawing 2: Grant, J.P. (1994). I dream of peace: Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York, NY: UNICEF. Drawing 3: Retrieved from http://hrw.org/ photos/2005/darfur/drawings/images and http://www.slate.com/id/2122730/ Drawing 4: Retrieved from http://hrw.org/ photos/2005/darfur/drawings/images and http://www.slate.com/id/2122730/ Drawing 5a: Retrieved from http://orpheus. ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp Drawing 5b: Grant, J.P. (1994). I dream of peace: Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York, NY: UNICEF. Drawing 6: Grant, J.P. (1994). I dream of peace: Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York, NY: UNICEF. Drawing 7: Grant, J.P. (1994). I dream of peace: Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York, NY: UNICEF. Drawing 8: Grant, J.P. (1994). I dream of peace: Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York, NY: UNICEF. Drawing 9: Volavkova, H. (1993). … I never saw another butterfly: Children’s drawings and poems from Terezin concentration camp, 1942-44. New York, NY: Schocken. Drawing 10: Volavkova, H. (1993). … I never saw another butterfly: Children’s drawings and poems from Terezin concentration camp, 1942-44. New York, NY: Schocken. Drawing 11: Grant, J.P. (1994). I dream of peace: Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York, NY: UNICEF. Drawing 12: Staatliches Judisches Museum in Prag. (1983). Kinderzeichnungen aus dem Konzentrationslager Theresienstadt. Prague: Staatliches Judisches Museum Prag. Drawing 13: Retrieved from http://orpheus. ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp Drawing 14: Retrieved from http://orpheus. ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp Drawing 15: Retrieved from http://orpheus. ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011
11 Mentoring: A Poet’s View Susan Jefts, Center for Distance Learning Maybe it all comes down to poetry versus prose. The whispered or the spoken, the implied or the stated. The more subtle light of evening versus the bright light of day. It’s hard to live solidly in both worlds. I think most of us have a preference for one or the other. Is it the difference between intuitive ways of perceiving and the more sensing, meaning via the five senses, way of perceiving Sometimes it seems to be. Multitudes of colors, dimensions and possibilities versus the observable ones before us or known in our minds. “I dwell in possibilities,” Emily Dickinson said of poetry, “a fairer house than prose.” This is not to say that prose isn’t colorful and full of dimension and possibility – it often is. But poetry is unique in possessing that quality Octavio Paz calls “roots and wings.” It likes to fly to unchartered places, as well as dwell in the deep rootedness of the earth. It needs both, and can have both, even in the same line. But is it an and/or thing we’re talking about Don’t we have the capacity for both poetry and prose in our lives and the way we see And isn’t there a need for both in this world There are days when I just want to go in a straight line. I have a list and I want to get it all done. If I stopped for every stray atom or metaphor that wandered into my mind, the day would be shot. No meetings attended, nothing mailed, no calls returned. I’d be a happy and creative, but disorganized, mess. Some days I need the set parameters and completion of prose. Point A to point B with just a few detours. I can go like this for a while, maybe even a week or two, but then something happens. I start to miss the subtleties and uncertainties of life, and the turning of them into something – something of captured beauty, and not necessarily with purpose. It starts in unlikely settings: a meeting at work, a call from a student, or an exchange of money at the coffee shop. I become aware that something is missing in these exchanges and if I stop for a moment, can sometimes find it dwelling between words, or in the patterns of light and shadow across a counter. It is the rest of the story, the unsaid words. It is where poetry tends to live. It occurs to me that mentoring is a little like this. So much of it is about how we choose to see. It can help to know if our natural way of seeing is by way of possibilities and associations or in more of a sensing manner of considering what is already there before us, and of what seems to make “sense.” Our culture has us trained to perceive in more of a practical and logical manner, whatever our natural preference, and this can leave out a whole world of possibilities. What I believe we (and our students) could benefit from when mentoring, is a conscious turning to the intuitive, associative parts of our minds, where we might dwell a little more in possibility. It is relatively easy, in many cases, to guide students along toward developing degree plans with a minimal amount of deep reflection on either of our parts. I find that when I stop, however, even just for a few minutes, and look at a degree plan backward or forward or a bit upside down, it can take on a new light. Often the clues have been there all along. Something a student once said in email, or a recurring word or phrase. Often they are the asides. They don’t find their way to the center because they seem unrelated at first, perhaps illogical. This tends to be where the gems lie; in the odd juxtaposition of words or ideas that can lead to the most interesting and original places. I have been working with a student who started with a concentration title of philosophy, but during her first few months as a student at the Center for Distance Learning, she occasionally mentioned her interests in human services and writing. From time to time, I would ask her how she saw her concentration in philosophy Susan Jefts developing, but she was never sure. One day I decided to play with this, toss back to her some of her own words and thoughts that included her interests in journalism, human services and philosophy. She had especially liked a philosophy class where they talked about how there are no absolute truths. We spent the next week emailing back and forth about this idea and aspects of her three interest areas. We explored what about them she was drawn to and how writing relates to philosophy, and how writing relates to mental health and community services. Then we progressed to considering different ways of combining some of these areas. She said that from this process of exchanges she felt a whole new world of possibilities open up for her. She had not considered that there might be meaningful connections between her different interests. I suggested she read about the area of interdisciplinary studies that could help her translate these connections into a viable academic program. Over the next days, she shared a multitude of possible ideas, and of subpossibilities within them, things I would not have thought of. suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011
Page 1 and 2: MENTORING ALL ABOUT A PUBLICATION O
Page 3 and 4: 1 Table of Contents Editorial - The
Page 5 and 6: 3 Imagination and Art: Children Cop
Page 7 and 8: 5 Drawing 3: Darfur, 2005. “All o
Page 9 and 10: 7 The child artist’s title for he
Page 11: 9 support, caregivers being in actu
Page 15 and 16: 13 Educating the Digital Citizen in
Page 17 and 18: 15 their learning activities. In th
Page 19 and 20: 17 While I find this useful in the
Page 21 and 22: 19 Shirky, C. (2011, January/Februa
Page 23 and 24: 21 Changing Ways of Knowing for Tra
Page 25 and 26: 23 intrinsic effort to self-protect
Page 27 and 28: 25 The evidence of education’s in
Page 29 and 30: 27 were present could participate e
Page 31 and 32: 29 her feelings about the treatment
Page 33 and 34: 31 Blended Learning Online: New Per
Page 35 and 36: 33 Students also will take self-gui
Page 37 and 38: 35 making certain she had forgotten
Page 39 and 40: 37 “At that restaurant” “We d
Page 41 and 42: 39 reports. Walking again to Jenna
Page 43 and 44: 41 Mentoring: A Social Relationship
Page 45 and 46: Interiors Installations by Carol Wa
Page 47 and 48: “River View,” 2010 (detail). Th
Page 49 and 50: 47 Lessons of War Elaine Handley an
Page 51 and 52: 49 win. Students read two Tim O’B
Page 53 and 54: 51 War veteran and author of Semper
Page 55 and 56: 53 Education and Individualism: Som
Page 57 and 58: 55 My Lost Stories Steve Lewis, Hud
Page 59 and 60: 57 Reflections on a Journey of Lear
Page 61 and 62: 59 A Teacher Reflects: Learning Abo
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61 a devoted reader of the left-lea
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63 total absence of any smell excep
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65 Found Things: Empire State Colle
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67 because the College will have an
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69 “Goin’ Mobile”: Designing
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71 of iPods in particular allowed t
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73 “Music never stops; it is we w
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75 Adult Education and Politics Ric
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77 democratic learning did not simp
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79 could never serve the market tha
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81 Here are a few preliminary thoug
Page 85 and 86:
83 Honoring George Drury (1917-2010
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85 came to my mind, and also on top
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87 Submissions to All About Mentori
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