All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

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because the College will have an impact on
them, we must recognize them explicitly,
take them seriously, and try to operate in
ways which help rather than hinder them.
Interpersonal competence is of primary
importance in marriage, family life and in
social relationships. It also plays a primary
role in job success. Most persons quit, are
fired, or are unhappy on the job because
they can’t cooperate effectively with their
fellow workers. Interpersonal competence
calls for the ability to interpret the intentions
and attitudes of others, to see situations
from another person’s standpoint. It calls
for the ability to improvise new roles
and alternative lines of action in working
relationships with others, and to help them
do the same. It also involves self-confidence
and the capacity to take the risks that
spontaneity and shifting orientations require.
The continuing relationships between
students and Mentors which are part of
contract planning and implementation
continually tax the interpersonal
competence of both parties. Dolores
Guion will need such competence when
she carries out her research project
in cooperation with and under the
supervision of Miss Jane Gary, Director,
and Mr. Author Powlawski, Researcher,
of the State Department of Health
Services and Manpower, and she will need
it to assure the continued cooperation of
the Hudson Valley Community College
faculty … Emma Schmidt’s competence
will be challenged when she visits agencies
to learn about their practices in relation
to Spanish-speaking clients, and when
she interviews Human Services faculty
members … Chuck Booth will be tested
when he directs his own seminar in basic
philosophy, seeks out guest lecturers, and
works with his class.
Increasing awareness lies at the heart of
liberal education. In very general terms,
history, economics, political science,
anthropology, and sociology increase
awareness of the diverse forces which
underlie social changes. Poetry and the
arts expand sensitivities and provide new
views of the world. Literature, philosophy,
psychology, and religious studies reveal the
complexities of human nature and human
relationships, and the motives and values
held by individuals and cultures. Biology,
chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology
and ecology describe the shifting physical
conditions which fundamentally determine
our existence.
Skills decline when unused, and specific
pieces of information are forgotten or
become outdated. However, once we move
to more complex levels of perception
and understanding, we no longer yield
so readily to surface explanations and
oversimplifications. Once we experience
the reward of new sensitivities, we will not
lightly forego them.
Donald Wentworth’s union will not be
the same for him after he finishes his
first contract … Rockland County will
not be the same for Bob Lenard after
he completes his extensive readings
and his travels through Spain, Italy and
Greece, his reflective diaries, his papers
… Manhattan, Albany, and Troy will be
different places for Janet Lessinger as she
pursues the Culture of Cities program
and encounters the varied cultures of
megalopolis … After reading Spinoza,
Wittgenstein, Skinner, and Bertrand
Russell, and learning to understand
and use philosophical methods, Emma
Schmidt’s approach to future work and
study will be modified.
Clarifying Purposes occurs when such
questions are asked as “Who am I Who
am I going to be Where am I, and Where
am I going” Significant educational
experiences raise such questions. Answers
require judgments about the kind of life we
want to lead and about vocational plans and
aspirations. The work we pursue influences
not only how much money we earn, but
where we live, the friends we make, and
the ways we spend our time. Furthermore,
competence develops most effectively when
powered by clear purposes.
Empire State’s approach, which takes
students’ purposes as the basis for
educational planning and action, generates
strong forces in this area. They begin to
operate with the initial exploration of a
Learning Center, the admissions application,
and the Orientation Workshop. Each time a
contract is planned and evaluated, questions
of purpose and progress are raised.
Wentworth and Guion know quite clearly
where they are and where they want
to go. Their contracts and programs of
study focus directly upon their career
concerns, providing pertinent information,
appropriate skills, and broad perspectives
… Bob Lenard has some strong interests
which provide a basis for beginning
study, but his intellectual interests are
still uncertain. Not that he minds. On the
contrary, he wants to take time to wander
through diverse cultures and climates, to
explore varied life styles and values of
the past and present. His “reactive diary”
continually applies his readings and travel
experiences to his own past and present,
to his own questions about who he is,
and where he is going … Emma Schmidt
brings two main purposes which guide her
initial study – a social work career among
Spanish-speaking peoples, and a desire
to develop her interest in psychology,
philosophy, and politics … Chuck Booth
wants to start an experimental school, but
he wants a broad foundation underneath
that specific philosophy, and a study of
three experimental colleges.
As these contracts are carried out and
evaluated, the initial purposes which
motivated them will be modified. Sometimes
those purposes will be sharpened and
strengthened, sometimes they will veer off
“Who am I Who am
I going to be Where
am I, and Where am
I going” Significant
educational experiences
raise such questions.
to a newly discovered and attractive angle,
sometimes they will be traded entirely for
a different vocational plan, a different life
style, or a different range of interests.
Becoming increasingly self-reliant means
becoming emotionally and functionally
independent; but most important, it
means recognizing our interdependence.
Emotional independence calls for the
capacity to function without constant praise,
encouragement, and emotional support.
Functional independence calls for the
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011