Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The Value of Mentors

In the preface to her book Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors, children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman wrote about the values her teachers passed along to her.

I cannot recall a single one of the mentors I share with you in this book ever talking to me just about how to make a living or get a job-- worthy and necessary goals. They all stressed how to make a life and to find a purpose worth living for and to leave the world better than I found it...I can't remember the clothes a single one of them wore or the kind of car they drove or whether they drove a car at all. What I do remember is their integrity, courage in the face of adversity, perseverance and shared passion for justice and a better life for children-- their own and other people's--as for education as a means to the end of helping others.