Power of Mentoring in K-12 Schools #2

Dear Newsletter Subscribers:

“Mentoring Starts Early–The Importance ofMentoring Students in Elementary School”

At Academic Window, we hope everyone’s 2023 is off to a strong and productive start! As previously mentioned in our first newsletter of the new year, in this edition, we will be taking a deeper dive into mentoring specifically at the elementary school level by digging into why starting mentoring early can have so many long-lasting benefits for students and their relationships with peers, mentors, teachers, and ultimately with their own mentees and children someday possibly too. We will explore what makes starting mentoring so young so critical for mentees’ personal development and character growth over time, the psychological benefits of learning correct behaviors and positive psychological approaches to actions and reactions, the long-term effects of confidently discovering and being recognized for strengths from a young age, the value of learning correct parenting behaviors, and the significance of the butterfly effect in shaping future schools and societies. Through our analytical observations, we will unfold a step-by-step process by which mentoring can improve psychological outlooks throughout life by building optimism and confidence starting young, positively influence a school’s spirit and culture one student at a time, and ultimately spread positive psychological behaviors that can continue being passed on to next generations.

Mentoring Young Minds Matters

Mentoring can play an essential role in learning from the very onset of a child’s educational journey and path toward self-discovery. Development of self-confidence at a young age is critically important. Allowing students to recognize their accomplishments enables them to develop the self-confidence needed to continue pursuing those strengths and interests over time. Through close support and specific recognition, students essentially come to realize the areas in which they can be most successful and make the most positive difference. Since it is crucial for us to detect strengths and encourage students’ confident and ongoing pursuit of those strengths, mentoring at the elementary school level is a vital first step. One teacher overseeing a classroom of 15-20 students at once, for instance, might find it difficult or nearly impossible to simultaneously observe the individual strengths of all 15-20 students. Moreover, students cannot behave as naturally in a regular classroom environment as they can either one-on-one or in small groups. Mentoring, therefore, is needed for homing in on each student’s strengths and interests in a more personable, deeper, and more connected and impactful way that can encourage students to develop positive psychology and confidence for life. Teachers generally have more instructional responsibilities to juggle today than ever before, too, making it challenging for them to spend the necessary time to truly recognize each student’s strengths and contribute toward their positive psychological development in the process. Close support of students in helping them discover their identities while positively approaching personal strengths and interests from a young age through mentoring can go a long way toward students achieving their full potential in life.

Importance of Correct Parenting Behaviors

While mentoring is critical in the discovery of strengths and identity, mentoring also teaches the positive psychology needed in parenting. This means behaving positively and providing opportunities for the development of strengths while calmly and clearly explaining and remaining patient and sympathetic without growing angry or forcibly preventing unwanted behaviors. Behavioral development from an early age is largely influenced by parental behavior. Psychologically, students maturing healthily depends on how parents support their child’s basic psychological needs – competence, autonomy, and relatedness. If parents behave correctly (without getting angry, but rather explaining clearly, sympathetically, and patiently), their children will grow to become psychologically healthy. When parents behave mistakenly, however, students behave mistakenly before having their own children; this then results in a domino effect as they will then behave mistakenly for their own children. This mentoring program teaches correct parenting, which has a positive long-term effect. Through this mentoring program, we can proactively address psychological problems that may cause behavioral issues. It is essential from a young age to establish relationships that encourage the best possible behaviors. Students psychologically internalize correct behaviors (actions and reactions). Mentor behavior is therefore very important, as mentors serve as role models for students. Mentors are hence trained on how to form correct behaviors they can model for students in their relationships, so that their mentees can also form correct behaviors for those they too influence in their own lives. While correct behaviors can be learned and developed through theoretical practice since people can think about how to behave in a better way and then apply it, positive actions mostly require experience, practice, and training. Mentoring others thus provides people with the essential mindfulness tools needed to positively respond to situations.

If we cannot solve students’ psychological problems at the elementary school level, it will be far more difficult to solve those issues later on in life. Mentors are therefore a key piece to the full picture. Through this program, we educate mentors around guiding students through problems. Mentors also learn how to care for children in their future lives in the process, thus improving their own parenting abilities. Likewise, the baby simulator application at the high school level even teaches students how to care for a child, which may be helpful for them in the future.

High School Students as Mentees and Mentors & The Butterfly Effect

A key piece of our mentoring program is our high school student mentors. Allowing high school students to serve as mentors enables them to serve as highly relatable role models and to reach students in small groups – in each mentoring session, different practices can therefore be applied and tailored to meet students more personally. Students can also start as mentees in 9th grade before becoming mentors once they’ve learned correct behaviors around positive psychological approaches and focus on strengths. Role model teachers train student mentors who then guide mentees toward potentially also becoming mentors down the road. This, in turn, results in the “Butterfly Effect” in which positive psychological approaches and positive behavior spreads. For this reason, half of all students in the program at the high school level are trained to be mentors so that they can then train others.

Long-Term Effects on Schools and Societies

Through this mentoring program, we train mentors so that they can help mentees grow to someday be mentors too, thus fostering healthy atmospheres and behaviors. Mentees internalize good behaviors and are ready for their future life. Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors can all be mentors for elementary students, too. In addition, Juniors can mentor Freshmen and Seniors can mentor Sophomores. After graduating from high school, our graduates can then continue to develop positive behaviors through the age at which they get married and prepare to have their own children. Their children will therefore then be healthy psychologically, too, as this process continues to spread positive psychology from generation to generation over time. Ultimately, this mentoring program will help create a psychologically healthy environment in schools and across entire districts, which will then translate into a healthy social atmosphere that impacts our future societies.

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