cannyben

What is Mentoring? In recent years, mentoring has emerged as a strong response to the plight of youth at-risk. Mentoring programs have expanded rapidly with increasing numbers of students working one-to-one with young people in schools, community agencies, and other settings. The student mentor is both a friend and a role model who supports and encourages a younger partner in his/her academic and personal growth. The mentor is also a guide who helps a young person make the difficult change from childhood to adolescence, from elementary to middle school to high school. This time of transition is especially important, for it is a time when young people are making decisions about how much — or how little—they can expect to achieve. Mentors and young people develop their relationships as they participate together in social, cultural, and recreational activities, community service projects, tutoring, or any of the many different activities that friends enjoy. Whatever the activit...

In the rich world globalization had driven the wedge between social classes, while in the poor world, the main divide is between countries: those that adjusted to globalization and, in many areas, prospered and those that adjusted badly and, in many cases, collapsed.Indeed the Third World was never a bloc the way that that the first and second worlds were. But it was united by its opposition to colonialism and dislike for being used as a battlefield of the two then-dominant ideologies. As the Second World collapsed and globalization took off, the latter rationale evaporated, and a few countries, most notably India and China, accelerated their growth rates significantly, enjoying the fruits of freer trade and larger capital flows. And although these two countries adapted well to globalization, there is little doubt that their newfound relative prosperity opened many new fissure lines. Inequality between coastal and inland provinces, as well as between urban and rural areas, skyrocketed...

If you teach for any amount of time, you’re going to encounter mentally unstable students. The degree of instability you encounter may vary, but at some point you will encounter a student who makes you concerned for his or her own safety, or perhaps even for the safety of your other students, your colleagues, and even yourself. How do we respond to such situations appropriately, with empathy, and while protecting the safety and classroom experiences of our other students? I was, unfortunately, recently reminded of what it is like to have to deal with a student who poses a legitimate risk to the people around them. The experience reminded me of how important it is to know the appropriate procedures for such situations, as well as how important it is for instructors to have institutional support when dealing with alarming students. Unfortunately, the protocols, and especially the less transparent ones followed by your institution’s legal services office, are sometimes designed m...

There are numerous reasons why we worry. We may be worried about our health, wealth, loved ones and friends. Or we may worry about yesterday, tomorrow, the environment, the situation in the world, or world politics. The nature of this world is birth, disease, old age, and death. Everything is therefore always changing and essentially the biggest problem is we want to control our environment. However, the reality is we are not the controllers. Things are going to go their own way. We can try our best, and to some degree we have influence, but ultimately things are out of our control. So to the degree we are attached to anything or anyone on this worldly platform, there will be worries. Attachment brings worry. The foundation of a building, although externally not seen, is what gives it strength and holds it up. Our mind is stable where it has a strong spiritual foundation. Storms and reversals may come but they do not disturb us if we have that foundation of inner fulfillment. We...