Mr Miyagi’s Mentoring
In the famous movie Karate Kid, Mr Miyagi, the teacher, got Daniel, the protagonist, to polish his car. There was a specific hand movement in Karate that he wanted Daniel to perfect but instead of practising the movement he made it into a task. “Wax on, Wax off.” Layer the wax with one hand and remove it with another.
The task while seemingly disconnected from the skill of karate was in fact vital to Daniel developing his core arm strength. Wax on, wax off, for hours at a stretch with no real gain in sight.
Until of course on the day of the fight when suddenly Daniel had perfected the stance and strength without realising it.
This wax on, wax off style of mentoring is the kind where the student is made to do unrelated tasks again and again so that when the time comes to take on the real challenge, they have already mastered the art. Similar to the style of students writing out their tables a gazillion times before ever encountering a multiplication challenge.
But what if Daniel had not taken on the task seriously. What if he had not done what his mentor asked him to do? Would his failure be his or his mentors?
I have come across mentors like Mr Miyagi who have a very clear idea of what to get a mentee to do but fail to or perhaps refuse to give any explanation, expecting the mentee to just follow orders.
Why is that a suitable method for mentoring? Is it because the mentees are not equipped to see the bigger picture, to grasp the totality of the situation or is it a mentor’s way of ensuring a mentee learns to trust their judgement without questioning; a trial of sorts of a mentee’s loyalty and belief in their mentor.
As a mentor to many, I wonder if they would accept whatever I say without questioning. Would they allow themselves to be mentored by me without doubting my motives or my methods? Probably not, because today we train our children to question authority, question methods and motives. And rightly so because they must have a say in their learning, they must have a clear idea of the rationale for what they are being asked to do.
What does this new age paradigm mean for mentors like Mr Miyagi who were also successful, yet used a completely different, almost unorthodox set of strategies. Are they a thing of the past or perhaps a one -in -a -million mentor very few of us have been lucky enough to have?
