All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

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capacity to go where you need to go and
do what you want to do without needing
advice and assistance. Fundamentally, we are
not so much independent as interdependent.
Friends, family, state, and nation depend
on us and we on them. Therefore becoming
autonomous, “having the capacity to be selfgoverning
and having the right to do so,”
occurs as we manage our interdependence
by recognizing when and where we must
depend on others and when we need not.
Empire State’s program calls for substantial
independence. It asks students to take charge
of their own learning, to recognize when
they require help and when they don’t,
and to know how to obtain that help. It
asks them to work largely on their own,
with periodic advice and evaluation from
a mentor, but without the usual support of
classmates, roommates, and other friendship
groups established in residential colleges.
Students like Wentworth and Guion,
with wide ranging experiences, strong
commitments, and demonstrated capacity
to get around and act effectively, bring
high levels of independence with them
… In undertaking a new career after 17
years as a factory worker, Emma Schmidt
is making a gutsy step. Success will mean
a wider range of alternatives for her, not
simply because she has a degree, but
because contracts like hers will increase
her capacity to pursue those alternatives
… Bob Lenard’s self-reliance will be tested
in his study and travels with his friend.
When that ambitious undertaking is
completed and after they have faced the
difficulties and decisions which will surely
arise, they will be confident of their ability
to go almost anywhere and do almost
anything.
Self-understanding and understanding
others calls for the capacity to move beyond
relationships of simple understanding to
those where there are sympathetic responses
to diverse kinds of persons and their
conditions. Self-understanding grows rapidly
through such relationships. As we test
ourselves in new experiences and situations,
we come to know ourselves more fully and
to develop more realistic ideas about our
strengths and weaknesses. Why did we
respond like that Where did those attitudes
come from Can we really make these
changes or handle this new opportunity
Life is enriched when we can enjoy a wide
range of different kinds of persons, when we
can go beyond simply tolerating those who
are different and can respond to them as
individuals.
As Donald Wentworth reads about union
leaders such as Debs, Haywood, and
Gompers, and about industrial leaders
such as Ford, Sloan, and Filene, as he
reads Servants of Power and What’s on
the Worker’s Mind, he’ll learn things
about himself, his past, and his fellow
workers that he hadn’t recognized before
… When Bob Lenard looks into the eyes
of a Spaniard, an Italian, and a Greek,
he’ll see new reflections of himself, his
family, and American culture; he’ll bring
back new understandings for a wider
range of future friendships … Janet
Lessinger will meet new cultures and
new autobiographies which will spotlight
different aspects of her own background,
and provide a broader base for meeting
the diverse persons she encounters in her
urban drug center.
Self-consistency exists when word and
deed are not in conflict, when they reflect
beliefs and principles which hold through
changing circumstances. The development of
self-consistency is a two part process. First,
there is the effort to establish a set of beliefs
which makes sense of our own experiences
and insights. Then there is the struggle to
make actions consistent with beliefs. Because
the world continually challenges our beliefs
and pressures us toward behaviors contrary
to them, maintaining self-consistency is
a life-long task. And this is in no way a
celebration of frozen attitudes; growth and
change do not necessarily violate the kind of
consistency we are talking about.
Significant educational experiences
raise important questions concerning
attitudes, values and beliefs. The values
and attitudes behind Wentworth’s long
standing union commitment will get a
thorough going-over as he studies Marx
and Engels and the General Motors strike
of 1936-37. He will find that new and
more complex levels of self-consistency
will have to be created … Chuck Booth
will have a similar experience as he
compares the philosophies of Camus,
Plato, Marcuse, Heidegger, Hegel, and
Kant with his own views, the views of
his Mentor, and the views of the students
who attend his seminar … When Emma
Schmidt confronts questions concerning
effective “Human Services,” as described
by college professors and community
agencies she also will confront questions
concerning human values and the values
behind her own impulse toward a social
work career … Bob Lenard will encounter
values and action expectations which
contrast sharply with his own.
This, then, is Empire State’s pyramid of
objectives. The forces set in motion by this
institution effect simple communication
skills, intellectual competence, and
significant areas of personal development.
Clearly, these forces will operate with
different intensities for each student,
depending upon his or her purposes, skills,
abilities, and personal characteristics. But
operate they will.
Learning occurs as new conditions require
new responses and as new experiences excite
new reactions. Students will learn because
the experiences built into contracts challenge
their competence, test their purposes, and
question their values. If the challenge is
too limited, or too overwhelming, then not
much learning will occur. The most effective
contract and program of study recognizes
just the right difference between a student’s
present level of learning and development
and what the new plans will require. Then
students can use the forces at work to
move ahead in those areas most important
to them.
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011