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Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Teachers as mentors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m spending the day at a training session for middle school teachers. Before it began, I talked with a sixth-grade teacher from Fulton County.
He’s been teaching for more than 15 years - a good portion of it in middle schools. For most of that time, he’s run an after-school mentoring program for boys.
They talk about issues going on in their lives. He helps them with their schoolwork. He gets them thinking about college.
“Most of these kids just want someone to listen to them,” he said. “If you listen to them, you’ll have them for life.”
I know other teachers reach out to their students. How much of a teacher’s job should be as an academic instructor and how much should be as a mentor?
