In learning you will teach, in teaching you will learn. -Phil Collins
Bill didn't understand how the world worked. For some reason, liking to read was cool for girls, but not for boys. He was only a fourth-grader though. As he entered the library, he tried as much as possible to go unnoticed. He was messy and nerdy, and didn't feel very confident about himself.
The librarian, Mrs. Caffiere, noticed Bill, and kind of saw something special about him. She was always very kind to him. He noticed Bill's love for books, and recommended a few. She would ask him if he read the books, if he liked them, why, and what he learned. She genuinely listened when Bill spoke. Bill felt comfortable around her. He could be himself -- messy and nerdy -- without feeling self cautious about it. Their relationship increased Bill's love for books, which played a big role in Bill's future success in his career.
The young boy: Bill Gates.
Here's what he wrote some time back on his blog:
"Looking back on it now, there’s no question that my time with Mrs. Caffiere helped spark my interest in libraries (Melinda’s and my first large-scale effort in philanthropy) and my focus on helping every child in America get the benefit of great teachers. I often trace the beginning of our foundation to an article about children in poor countries dying from diseases eliminated long ago in the U.S. But I should give some credit as well to the dedicated librarian and teacher who helped me find my strengths when I was nine years old. It’s remarkable how much power one good person can have in shaping the life of a child."
When I learn something new, I believe I owe it to the world to at least teach one person about it. You never know what effect something so simple to you may have on someone else.
I know there's a lot of experienced developers on this platform and I'd like to take a moment to reach out to you. I really like the opportunity Dev.to offers to volunteer as a mentor. Please take advantage of that to help change someone's life 🙂. And if you'd like to be mentored (I'm a beneficiary 😊) then register as a mentee. Then leave the rest to the wonderful Dev.to team. They'll find you a match based on your interests and goals.
Anyone else have an interesting mentor/mentee story to share with the rest of the class? 😄
Top comments (10)
Interestingly enough, I do want to teach code. I'm still a student myself, so I could use a mentor to help me learn... but what I really want is someone who can guide me to guide others. Things like pair programming make me nervous because I don't want to confuse someone who has a shakier understanding of a topic than I do.
I hope to start flexing my teaching muscles on a regular basis. Then I will be able to spread the love. :)
I'm open for teaching code and fundamentals!
Really I need a mentor
Speaking of mentee and mentor in profile..
Ben Halpern
@Kinyanjui nice post, glad you brought it up.
If you submit to one of the forms with info about you we'll try to match you. We've matched a bunch of folks already, but we sort of just tossed it out without too much of a plan, so there's a backlog we're currently working through.
But...
We've been working on our process and we'll be ready to bring it out of beta soon enough. People should definitely sign up if they're interested in being matched. The process will become less opaque over time. I've personally really enjoyed being a mentor in the program so far. 🙂
Hope that's a thing soon as I'd love to help with that.
To be clear: It's already available: dev.to/settings/mentorship
We just still have a big beta label on it, but our matches are getting more reliable and quicker these days.
Wow, I wasn't aware of that. I kinda regularly read Dev.to but hever seen the news. Was that announced in any way?
We made one post about it:
Changelog: Mentor Matchmaking!
Jess Lee
But otherwise didn't make a big deal about it because it still needed work. I'd say we're a couple weeks away from being able to talk about it more because we've made our match-making process more efficient and less hectic.
I feel like I am on match .com for geeks