David Shenk points out another contributing factor to one's success being inspiration and determination caused by a teacher or other mentor. "Most students who become interested in an academic subject do so because they have met a teacher who was able to pique their interest" (127).
Do you think a mentor or "teacher" is necessary in order to obtain success? Do you agree or disagree with Shenk's point that a mentor helps facilitate and breed a person's interest in any given subject? Is there a psychological impact that older mentors have on growing individuals? Reference either Campbell or an online source when answering. Can having a mentor possibly illicit some negative behavior or cause a person to stray from their own individual success?
Sachin Vasikaran (sachinvasikaran@gmail.com)
Teachers are something that really further interest and make students so much more interested in a topic IF the student already has a pre set passion and real interest in the topic. The greatest teacher can not force a student to practice or become truely great at something that they do not truely want to be doing. I know from personal experience that regardless how many violin teachers I went to, I never had the drive to practice and become great because it wasnt my true love. I do however know, that when I truely wanted something and it was important to me, a teacher only buffed out the rough edges but the bulk of the time was spent by me.
ReplyDeleteThrough my own experience a teacher is essential to a slightly easier success but isnt necessary to obtain success entirely. I do belive that a teacher can be good at inspiring and creating a goal for the student through example of where practice can lead. However, a teacher can not completely bring a passion out of nowhere, when no inner passion is there. Society also plays a role in this development of passion. A student who is ashamed or embarressed by the activity they are participating in will never try as hard becasue they would see themselves as dorky. The environmental influence shapes the young and makes it harder to tell if there is a true passion within or if it is a hopeless cause to search for it.
If a mentor or teacher doesnt know the limits of their pupils, it is very easy for them to push their students too far and cause them to have not only indifferent and unmotivated feeling toward teh activity, but associate it with negative feelings and be not only uninterested in practicing but adimate about not practicing or rehearsing. This could discourage their own individual process of learning the skill and could ultimately extinguish any real passionate flame within them to push and actually work toward progress.
Hannah Perl (hannahperl94@gmail.com)
I think that teachers are extremely necessary in the success of a young animal. In the case of imprinting, young birds need a teacher in order to understand its species. The bird needs to imprint on a fellow bird, and say not a human, in order to know it is a bird (http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id6.html). Also, like any other animal, it needs to observe in order to learn. It needs to watch how to get food, who to trust, and importantly how to survive. Observational learning is very important in the survival of an animal. The way it can be harmful is that Bandura researched aggression (http://alevelpsychology.co.uk/a2-psychology-aqa-a/unit-3/social-psychology/aggression/social/psychological-factors/social-learning-theory-of-aggression.html) and discovered that young kids learned aggression through watching and imitating aggressive models in the Bobo doll study.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shenk that a mentor helps one be interested or not in a subject. In my experience, a bad teacher makes me hate a subject and a great teacher makes me love the subject and work hard at it. Besides rigorous training and practice, “magnificent external resources” (Shenk 127) is necessary to achieve the most success in one’s subject.
I also agree with Hannah that it is necessary for a student to have some interest in a subject in the beginning because the teacher cannot be expected to do everything to motivate the student. Some internal motivation will be required of course.
Gabriella Veytsel (geminizire@hotmail.com)