As a Westbury resident and architect I have been presenting at career day at the Powells Lane School for almost 15 years. Invariably students ask me about salary and I explain that it’s directly related to how much one cares about themselves and others. I go on to give concrete examples of how caring affects opportunity and the students are consistently captivated. According to teachers and faculty, this program has become a big success.
As part of an effort to improve school performance and the quality of the community, I propose, among other things, voluntary community mentoring. This program could evolve to become a kind of “every day career day.” Every adult member of the community has a story to share with our students. These members could volunteer to undergo simple training by other mentors and then volunteer to present one or two weekday evenings per month in the schools. A free program like this could lessen the tax burden to the community and provide teachers with an improved environment to focus on teaching.
And the benefits of voluntary mentoring wouldn’t end there. First and foremost students under-perform because they don’t care. If we show them that we care about them first, maybe they will start to care more about themselves and each other. Increased community caring could improve school performance and property values. Increased caring could improve the quality of the community and promote community cooperation and pride. Mentors themselves would be networked and could be exposed to more opportunity for themselves and their businesses as well. Voluntary community mentoring could become a win-win situation for all of us.
—Gary Spinello
