[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Joachim

But from Dean's talk, a mentor-lead team, producing a mentor-designed machine, where students are learning from every step, seems well within (if not maybe even closest to) Dean's vision, at least as he expressed it on that one occasion.

That's a pretty consistent message.

Thing is - it isn't always easy to hear what you don't want to hear. In an ideal world, that is the message. In reality, it can't always work or be applied. Teams adjust to their circumstances or their leaders' ideas of how to run a team. It doesn't take too long before teams have moved beyond the perimeters of Dean's vision and into their own. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing but it doesn't hurt to pay attention to Dean's speeches and learn from them. The message is consistent and there is wisdom and value in it.

Peter Pan was a great leader. He was fun, adventurous, exciting, and clever. He was also uneducated, undisciplined, and basically, frozen in time. He was the leader of the Lost Boys. Peter Pan was a leader but he was not a mentor and could not move the boys forward towards their futures in a helpful way - so they were all stuck - lost. It is a story but it is something to think about when thinking about the impact of adult mentors who have the capability of helping to move the students forward into their futures.

Jane