Teachers as Spiritual Mentors, Pt. 2

Here is the challenge----I could write a long book about the manner in which I mentor my 12th graders, and I do quite well, thank you!  However, I am at a particular stage of ego functioning, with a certain number of experiences behind me, so what might be the lessons that I could impart to others, reading my book?  To mentor from where they are developmentally, and to appreciate that they are not at other levels, below or above them.  They and I need to be humble in our understanding of our particular perspective, and to give up overselling our abilities.  This humility, this restraint in placing our understanding as the Truth into the heart of our young colleagues, is a discipline that I am constantly aware that I must practice.  The concommitant caution is that the mentor must treat his mentee from a Wilber-Combs-type matrix, with the student's stage of development plotted against the teacher's.  Thus it is impossible to give a laundry list of "how tos" in this touchy area.

And of course there is the LL and LR of the school and community.  I tread very very carefully in everything that I do, since I have a loud and well-funded group of Evangelicals who have attempted to get high-funcitoning teachers fired and the Humanities course curriculum entirely re-written from a "Christian-centric" perspective.  When my students demand daily meditation, as much as my heart tells me to go along, I know that I will run into trouble somehow, even if I language it as stress reduction.

I am using Susanne Cook-Greuter's action-logics for the teachers, and will deal with the levels of the mentees tomorrow.

Let's take a moment with the Opportunist:--if this person sits with a senior after reading the tales that I tell of what goes on in my classroom, his understanding of the situation, and his particular interpretation will be quite different from mine.  It might be  tempting for him to disparage the young seeker, and to label higher moral reactions as lame and weak.  I doubt that anyone at this level of ego development would be interested in taking on the role of spiritual mentor, unless assigned to do so, or to label the student in some way from her moral perspective.  Needless to say, the relationship would not mature, unless the student were susceptable to criticism, and too insecure to understand that the label was an act of selfishness on the teacher's part.

Diplomats would also be preoblematic in this role, and their responses would most likely conform to the status quo of the school.  Students who were at the Concrete level of cognition would find confirmation of their understandings as long as they conformed to protocol or rules.  A circuit would be developed that would be of use to the entering Concrete thinker, but such association would not help the student face paradoxes or stretch their perspectives.

Experts are probably in abundance in high schools, as memorization and understanding of their particular subject matter are of paramount importance.  They often dazzle students with their arcane knowledge, and since the educational system privileges these individuals, in many instances rightly so, with objective information prized as productive for high stakes testing.

Interested in perfection, they would encourage the seeking student to adhere to the specifics of his chosen path, or recommend different paths quite objectively with pros and cons stated in 3rd person.  I find that Experts do not possess good discernment, and it is this very quality that is most sought after in the questioning student.  Which path is right? better? what of my dream?  I don't want to hear about REM sleep and brain wave patterns and the latest article in the Economist; I want to enter my UL zone # 1 and #2 to come to a deeper touching of my own interior.  Where is the Bigger Picture?  why can't you help me see it?  Students usually report frustration over the long and detailed recounting of objective knowledge that they receive from these well-intentioned educators.

Now to the achiever:  the student might receive a "plan" for spiritual or religious learning from this teacher.   But I have found that they do not listen deeply to the undercurrents of what and why the student is seeking, and tend to accept the presenting quetion, which is rarely the deeper reason for the questioning, growing, and stretching.  They want very much to solve the problem, to give an answer, but poften cannot bring themselves to just sit and be the vessel who listens deeply and thus intuits the sacredness of the student's requesnt and longing.  The achiever would likely direct the student to the best books to read, which is of value, but often ultimately leads to frustration, as the deeper search is never herd nor addressed.

When non-rational paths are asked about, it is likely that they will dismiss the transrational, committing a pre/post fallacy of ignoring the trustworthy transrational paths.  I have had this reported to me by my students, and I then have to explain what the adult's perspective was, and why the Left-hand path was marginalized or dismissed as ridiculous.  I don't believe that the 17 year old has the capacity to analyze what the Achiever has done, and thus might give up in frustration, or in the rational belief that his feelings and intuitions are false.

The Individualist is in a far better position to deal with the seeking student.  he usually knows about postmodern beliefs and revels in relativism, which can be freeing and of great benefit to the exiting formal operational student.  These are great teachers, and they tend to be magnets for the seeking students.  They play wonderful mind games, throw out gret hypothetical situations, can quote the latest and most fascinating test results.  The Individualist would be an ideal mentor for students of the type that we are dealing with, and thee are enough of this stage that a school is likely to have a ffew on faculty.  It is never a secret as to who they are---just look at what type of student shows up voluntarily after class to just sit, learn, lsten, and play!

(more tomorrow)