Key point here is: "human becoming absolutely depends upon the quality of interaction between the person and his or her social network."
The chapter does a decent job of discussing how the community of belonging, which gets redefined as a child ages from a conventional dependent community, to a self-selected community, is important as a child develops into a young adult.
The chapter also discusses how societal norms are infused on the young adult. These change from societal norms in the eyes of the child to self-directed value systems that, through the help of a mentor, the child can develop that leads to successes later in life.
However, as the child develops their value systems, there is a higher level of complexity and challenges that they face. With hope they are not facing this challenge alone, but with the assistance of a helpful mentor the can handle the complexity and competing interests.
A clear example is the foster or adoptive child who is choosing between two communities - their community of origin or the community of the foster parent, which can be dramatically different. A third party coming in and assisting the child in developing a value system which may be inclusive of the two communities helps the child grow and develop.
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Joshua,
ReplyDeleteI can see where having a mentor can be a good buffer between the community of origin and the community of the foster parent. As a young adult makes the transition from adolescent to adult, the social group is so critical, and where a foster child may not want to listen to either the members of their original community or their foster parents, a mentor can be an invaluable source of wisdom and inspiration...