The Art of Mentoring

Liberty-based mentoring is an art. This pillar is the art of loving and leading others in the cultivation of excellence, while respecting each person as a sovereign with unique intrinsic potential and free will, rather than a machine or an animal to be programmed or conditioned. Mentoring is a form of servant leadership.

In order to be a servant leader, the mentor must see the mentee as an agent to act, not merely an object to be acted upon. A mentee must ultimately choose to be mentored. Regardless of the mentee’s willingness, the art of mentoring requires that a mentor loves and serves the mentee for the simple truth that all humans share a nature imbued with dignity and intrinsic worth. Selfless love is the most powerful motivating force in the mentor-mentee relationship. When a mentor loves a mentee, he or she serves the mentee through dedication of time, talents, and energy to the mentee’s best interests.

Mentors lead by example. They model servant leadership and excellence with passion, integrity, and honesty. Leadership in action respects the sovereignty of the mentee through inspiring, inviting, admonishing, training, modeling, and coaching mentees to engage in the pursuit of truth, wisdom, and virtue. Mentors believe in the mentee enough to expect quality work. Mentoring is more than mere transmission of information; it involves equipping others to discover ideas and truths for themselves and to act accordingly. The goal of mentoring in an American Classical Leadership Education is to guide mentees through the pillars to become liberated servant leaders.

Volunteer to Become a Community Mentor

While informal mentoring by all academy stakeholders is expected and encouraged, the academy actively seeks to facilitate formal community mentoring experiences throughout a scholar’s time at the academy. These experiences may include but are not limited to: opportunities for mentor guided reading of classic books in business, self-improvement, science, history, art and other topics of interest to the scholars; opportunities to participate in lectures or classes devoted to subjects or topics of interest to the scholars; opportunities to participate in job shadowing or career presentations; opportunities to participate in community sponsored service projects; opportunities to be guided by a mentor in projects of art, sculpture, design, business planning, coding etc.  

If you have an interest in participating as a formal community mentor at John Adams Academy, or know of a mentoring opportunity you feel may be beneficial to the scholars, please reach out to info@johnadamsacademy.org. We will be happy to provide feedback on any proposed mentoring topics or experiences. Please note that all mentoring topics and/or experiences are expected to support and uphold the mission, vision, and core values of John Adams Academy and are subject to review by academy officials. Topics or experiences that are deemed inappropriate or not supportive of the Academy’s mission or vision will not be offered to the scholars.