An odd aspect of "Journey to the West / Monkey King" is that it is a story about Tripitaka's pilgrimage, yet the first 7 chapters are about Monkey. The initial connection the reader forms with Monkey inevitably shapes the later story, like the theme in a Wagnerian opera. Monkey's theme is desire and failure.
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| Evil Monkey |
At the end of chapter 7, Monkey was finally trapped by Buddha under Five Elements Mountain. Monkey returns to the story in Chapter 14 when he meets Tripitaka. Monkey beseeches Tripitaka to release him from his prison. "Buddha promised me that if I amend my ways and faithfully protect the pilgrim along his journey, I was to be released, and afterwards would finally find salvation." Shortly after being released, Monkey returned to his old ways and abandoned his new master. To assist in Monkey's self-improvement, Tripitaka implemented a magical form of corporal punishment. Eventually, Monkey was "reformed" and achieved enlightenment.
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| Baylor Monkey |
The mentor/mentee relationship, like that between Tripitaka and Monkey, is often imposed in large organizations to help new recruits adjust and succeed in a new environment. Such programs are used at Baylor University for both new students and new faculty. What do you think are key characteristic of a successful mentor/mentee relationship? Is punishment necessary for self-improvement? If "yes", what types of punishment? If "no," why not?
In the classroom setting test and quizzes in addition to other assignments serve as punishments for student/ teacher relationships which mirrors those of the mentor/ mentee
ReplyDeleteResearchers have found positive and negative reinforcements extraordinarily effective in educating people. Punishment is a kind of negative reinforcement, and is necessary for self-improvement I believe. Receiving a bad grade from mentor is considered a warning, a punishment for mentee.
ReplyDeleteI find the issue of testing an interesting dimension to this discussion. Would you (or a typical university student) complete reading and writing assignments without the threat of bad grades? Often I think that it would be better to dispense with grading, but would the classroom activities suffer because of it? For example, Harvard Law does not give give letter grades. They merely use a pass/fail system.
ReplyDeleteI feel like these days, we would see no point in doing an assignment unless a grade was given for it. A lot is determined by the grades a student makes. Grades and scores are what got us into college, and grades and scores are things that are going to get us into graduate schools or get us jobs. If grades didn't exist, I bet that assignments wouldn't get done because there would be no consequences in not doing them. So I do believe classroom activities would suffer, because we depend on grades for a lot of things and grades also offer self improvement. A successful mentor/mentee relationship needs understanding. A mentor needs to be willing to teach, and a mentee needs to be willing to learn. Punishment, such as a bad grade, would teach the mentee his mistakes, and hopefully he will be able to receive a better grade next time.
ReplyDeleteWhat goes along with understanding is trust. The mentee has to trust that the mentor will not ask something of her/him that can not be achieved. The mentor has to trust that the mentee will value what is provided so that she/ he will fully divulge the knowledge/skills the mentee seeks.
ReplyDeleteThe mentor/mentee relationship is a uniquely valuable connection. It is, however, important to distinguish the difference between and m/m relationship and a teacher/student relationship. A mentor exists less as a teacher and more as an adviser. Much of Monkey's spiritual growth did not occur as a result of teaching (at least, the teaching is never mentioned in a successful context-- Monkey tried to kill his master after a short teaching session). Instead, his growth seemed to occur gradually over the journey. Whenever he arrives and becomes a Buddha, he finds that the hat binding him had magically disappeared some time before. It was over the process of the journey, being guided by Triptaka, that the hat become unnecessary (also note that the hat was not for punitive reasons, but to incapacitate Monkey).
ReplyDeleteTo summarize the above: a mentor/mentee relationship allows the mentee to make mistakes and (most importantly) to realize the consequences from those mistakes. It is by experiencing these consequences (and, as a corollary, seeing the benefits of not making certain mistakes) that one improves-- not by feeling artificial punishment imposed by the mentor/teacher.
I prefer positive reinforcement--negative responses, although at time necessary, really need to be broached in a positive way, a constructive way. I believe Monkey's journey/apprenticeship is structured in a positive way. I think that is why he is still so popular. The mentor stays in control but kindly kinds the mentee to enlightenment.
ReplyDeleteThinking back to my mentor in college, I realize that an important function of that relationship was to bridge social, class, and work hierarchies. When one is on top of the hierarchy (senior, law-partner, full professor) the tendency is to preserve the authority of that position by excluding those below. The mentor breaks down that hierarchy, thereby allowing the mentee to make connections with those in power and open doors for opportunities to succeed. Once the door is opened, it is the mentee's responsibility to succeed, to belong. Tripitaka's opened the door for Monkey to redeem himself. He provided the opportunity, Monkey had to take advantage of the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteNice post! This is a very nice blog that I will definitively come back to more times this year! Thanks for informative post.
ReplyDeletePersonal development