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Mentoring

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Beware the high school teacher, my son,
the need that clings, the smile invincible!
Beware the grant-based program and shun
the frumious vice principal!

So, this guy messages me and says we were on a panel together and I'm so awesome and there's this kid at his [alternative] high school who wants to be a writer and would I be willing to come out and just talk for a bit to see what it's all about.

I was. I did.

I figure I'm just going to go learn about the program, but no. They take me straight to the kid and how am I going to say no to a pair of sixteen-year-old eyes? And all they want is four hours a day twice weekly. Until June.

Oh, I was brave. I sad-eyed them down to one day a week. Which basically blows one writing day a week for the next five months and yes I know how that sounds, don't look at me like that.

And he's a typical teenager who shouldn't be asked by anyone what sort of career he wants because he's sixteen for cryin' out loud. Leave him alone and let him play.

But now I've signed on and it turns out there are requirements and he makes a presentation and it's easy to see all that is but superstructure to make the suits happy and give them something to chart. Pour justifier leurs titres as Lucien Febvre said.

All of which is by way of me asking a single question: has anyone else mentored a high school student in writing?

Pardon me while I gyre and gimble.
 
I feel your pain of losing a day of writing to something like this. I mentored high school kids in college, but it was for engineering not writing. It was also on my terms, not the school's, which was nice.

From what you wrote it sounds like you aren't a huge fan of the structure they're forcing on him. I agree with that and don't think it will encourage him to continue writing over the long term. Mentoring him is an opportunity for you to teach him what's important in writing and life. Let him play around with it like you said. Maybe by June he will hate it and that's fine. I would also make sure to explain to him that the suits don't know what they're talking about and if he's genuinely interested in being a writer, he will have to figure out how to make the suits happy without compromising his art. He was going to have to learn it eventually.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I have and still do, with the caveat that I get to set the rules, and the rules are: you work or you're out. I don't believe in waiting for the Muse. She works for me, so she better punch in and get to it. I don't believe in Writer's Block, but I do believe in story issues that cause one to get stuck. I love rabbit holes because some of them lead to Wonderland. And I love young minds and young talent and love watching them mature. Yeah, it does take some writing time, but once someone mentored me and it changed my life. I can spare a little time.
 
Can one mentor oneself? I think not. I am mostly self taught.

I've helped my friend with his poetry and college application essays if that counts. But I, like him, am still a high school student myself *shrug* College bound in the fall.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
Geez. That sounds like a really crappy situation they dumped on your lap there. I sometimes get friends asking me about things, and that's awkward enough as it is. Getting bullied into looking after some kid just because it looks good on paper for some administrative purposes sounds like a real bad experience.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
Maybe I shouldn't ask, but are they paying you?

IMO, whether this is worthwhile is all about the kid and how the two of you get along. One day a week is worth nurturing good talent. But that has to come from the pupil. Insomuch as it's all about the parents thrusting you together, then he could be as much a "victim" (I use the word loosely) of this time sink as you are.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
<snip>Getting bullied into looking after some kid just because it looks good on paper for some administrative purposes sounds like a real bad experience.

It's really more a case of inefficiency. The teacher himself is well-intentioned. The kid himself is merely a typical teen, unfocused and wistful, eager for direction but not yet able to follow it on a sustained basis. The two went to administration and made a pitch that no doubt sounded far better organized than it really is. I wasn't really bullied, I'm just unable to be cruel enough to say sorry kid, I don't want to take the time.

So I take the time. And annoy you good folks with whining. I think my keyboard should make a whining noise when I make posts like this.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Devor, near as I can tell, the initiative came from the kid, though I also suspect some formal pressure. Each kid at this alternative school has to make a presentation, here's what I learned, in each of six areas. It may be he was just under pressure to have *something* for the communications area, and thought hm maybe I could be a writer. I like making anime character sheets, so ....

I was hoping that someone might have done actual mentoring in this sort of situation, but I was also just humorously warning people away from the tar baby that is high school. I wouldn't have taken it on if I had thought there was a real threat to my writing goals.

Thanks for all the feedback. It helps.
 
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