High School Mentoring

In high schools across the United States, there are mentoring clubs. These clubs encourage students to help other students. This is not a tutoring program, but a way to help other students who may be struggling in school both socially as well as mentally.

There are plenty of opportunities for someone to get help academically in school. Schools have tutoring programs that are run by teachers and even students. Students who are struggling in a subject can also use outside tutoring programs to help them understand a certain subject. Mentoring is something a bit different.

A mentor is someone you would like to emulate somehow in life. They have either achieved a goal that you would like to achieve or are performing in a way that you can envision yourself performing. In high school, mentoring can take many forms.

In the music department of a high school, teenaged mentors can help others who want to be in band or play a musical instrument. A mentor does not give lessons, but talks to the person who he or she is mentoring in order to help them achieve their goals. They may suggest certain lessons or even a type of instrument. They will keep the student abreast of what is going on in the music world.

On the sports fields, mentors will help other athletes get ready for games and train to excel in the sport of their choice. Mentors are often assigned to younger players to teach them how to train and reach their performance goals.

In other segments of high school, there is peer mediation that works to help students adjust to new surroundings. This can include incoming freshman who are overwhelmed with high school. Some schools assign student mentors who are upperclassmen to freshman students. This allows the freshman to get acquainted with the school under the guide of an upperclassman who is usually a senior or a junior. It also allows the upperclassman to get the experience of helping a younger person.

Mentoring is a very old concept, especially when it comes to mentoring in high schools. In boarding schools, mentoring has been used for years. The context was different, but the younger students were pretty much assigned to an older student. Of course, the concept of shining the shoes of the older students and toting around their books should not be put in use, but the basic concept of the older student looking out for the younger student is still a good principal.

In the case of school mentoring, a student can either seek out a mentor that is practiced in the field in which he or she admires such as music, art, theater or sports or can also be assigned an older student who is well versed with the rules of the school. Either way, mentoring in high school is good way for younger students to get acclimated to high school and older students to be helpful and learn empathy.