Keep Your Mentee Disappointed

Commenting on a Talmudic expression, that exhorts one to “make for thyself a Rabbi”, I suggest that the mentoring relationship involves the student making an emotional investment and constructing an (often distorted) image of their mentor as possessing superior mastery. I argue that this process can...

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Main Author: Gil Eyal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Bologna 2025-01-01
Series:Sociologica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/20360
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author Gil Eyal
author_facet Gil Eyal
author_sort Gil Eyal
collection DOAJ
description Commenting on a Talmudic expression, that exhorts one to “make for thyself a Rabbi”, I suggest that the mentoring relationship involves the student making an emotional investment and constructing an (often distorted) image of their mentor as possessing superior mastery. I argue that this process cannot be understood with our model of liberal education, because being mentored as a sociologist involves learning a craft, and is akin to the ancient cultural model of apprenticeship. I conclude with some thoughts about the ethical duty of the mentor that this model entails, the most important of which is to disappoint your mentee in the right measure and at the right time.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
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publisher University of Bologna
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series Sociologica
spelling doaj-art-0103db34e5e74b14ae0804f6e0b762a92025-01-23T13:04:35ZengUniversity of BolognaSociologica1971-88532025-01-0118391210.6092/issn.1971-8853/2036018730Keep Your Mentee DisappointedGil Eyal0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7194-3864Department of Sociology, Columbia UniversityCommenting on a Talmudic expression, that exhorts one to “make for thyself a Rabbi”, I suggest that the mentoring relationship involves the student making an emotional investment and constructing an (often distorted) image of their mentor as possessing superior mastery. I argue that this process cannot be understood with our model of liberal education, because being mentored as a sociologist involves learning a craft, and is akin to the ancient cultural model of apprenticeship. I conclude with some thoughts about the ethical duty of the mentor that this model entails, the most important of which is to disappoint your mentee in the right measure and at the right time.https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/20360apprenticeshipcharismaemotional investmentmentoring
spellingShingle Gil Eyal
Keep Your Mentee Disappointed
Sociologica
apprenticeship
charisma
emotional investment
mentoring
title Keep Your Mentee Disappointed
title_full Keep Your Mentee Disappointed
title_fullStr Keep Your Mentee Disappointed
title_full_unstemmed Keep Your Mentee Disappointed
title_short Keep Your Mentee Disappointed
title_sort keep your mentee disappointed
topic apprenticeship
charisma
emotional investment
mentoring
url https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/20360
work_keys_str_mv AT gileyal keepyourmenteedisappointed