I believe a teacher doesn’t simply give their students information, I believe a teacher guides that student to understanding. As a teacher I believe your greatest priority is the development of critical thinking and skills in your students. As a parent I feel this very deeply. The main core principle I attempt to employ is the concept of Sonder. This is the recognition that every single person who passes you by has a life as complex, deep, and nuanced as your own. As a mentor there are three practices I use to center this philosophy; perspective, empathy,, and compassion. 

 

Perspective - Not everyone learns the same way, or has the same understanding of things, and it is hubristic to think everyone has the same experiences as you. I myself went undiagnosed with Combined ADHD for most of my life. This is why recognizing and searching for other perspectives is important. Not everyone will view things the say way. 

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A good way to get someone’s perspective is to ask them open ended or prompted questions towards what goals or expectations the student has. In Protocols and Process in Online Tutoring, Cooper et al., suggest “The tutor begins with an opening question, used to summarize what she thinks is the writer’s main goal. The question, indeed a rhetorical question, expects no response.” (Cooper 2005). As a mentor it's important to not put unnecessary expectation on a student. You may not have the same ideas about things, and its important to keep yourself open to differing ways of thinking.

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Empathy - This is a term that is often defined very differently depending on the source, so I will offer my own definition here, to give you my perspective of this word. Empathy is the ability to perspective take, to imagine yourself in someone else's situation as they see it. Why does someone from that point of view see it that way? 

 

Empathy is holding multiple perspectives in your mind. As summarized in David Kelly (2021) essay Errors, Mistakes, and Rhetorical Choices (in reference to Standard American English (SAE)),  that while there may be a standard way to do something, it doesn't make it superior or the only way. 

 

The point holds pretty universally. Maintaining understanding why someone sees something differently will help you in navigating misunderstandings or perceptual differences that can encounter whenever people communicate.

 

Compassion - Compassion is the ability to look at a situation with empathy and perspective and ask “what does this situation need?” How can I help this person get to where they want to go? How much work are they willing to put in to get there? It is factoring in all the variables and remembering that we all fail at times. We all don’t have the same struggles and experiences. To be mindful of others emotional states and your own.

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This is important because as Mannon (2021) highlights in his reading, often emotional and psychological labor goes unregistered and unrecognized in this and other professions. 

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-CITATIONS- 

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Cooper, G., Bui, K., Riker, L. (2005). A Tutor’s Guide: Protocols and Process in Online Tutoring

 

Kelly, D. (2021) Errors, Mistakes, and Rhetorical Choices. https://bmetwritingcenters.wordpress.com/david/

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Mannon, B. (2021). Centering the emotional labor of writing tutors. Writing Center Journal, 39(1). https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1962