In the video Why I Read a Book a Day (And Why You Should Too): The Law of 33% by Tai Lopez, discusses the importance of mentors to success. Tai discusses how every great legend of a person had a mentor. Bill Gates had someone to advise him how to become successful. Gandhi had a mentor that advised him on how to protest peacefully. I believe that teachers have great power since they are likely mentors to students. But just as Spider Man says, with great power comes great responsibility. As a teacher, I know that I can build skills for students that will enable them to become successful in this world. These skills are better known as 21st century skills. For those to thrive within our society, they must be willing to learn and continue to learn. People must learn how to think beyond the box and collaborate with others. These are skills that students need mentors to help build.
The video promoted using books to access the minds of potential mentors. Tai invited the audience to join him on a Saturday for a question and answer session with great people such as Darwin, Einstein, Newton and even Mother Teresa. When this invitation was extended, many had puzzled faces since those great people are now deceased. But he carefully mentions that their books are all in his library and ready to be accessed at any moment. Although mentors are great, they can not provide all the answers since not one person can have all the answers. This is why having a diverse library will provide opportunities to answer more questions and discover more questions. In questioning my ability to teach science, I realized it is not the fact that I know all about science that makes me great but that it is the ability to use resources to discover answers and ponder more questions that is great.
We need to retrain our brains to view books in a different light. For many of us, we learned that we should read a book once and that is it. However, Tai promotes envisioning books as friends that you revisit, bounce ideas off of and continue to contribute to your quest of self identity. One idea that I would love to incorporate into the classroom is this law of 33%. The law of 33% states that 33% of your time should be spend with people who are of a lower level than you so that you can mentor them. 33% of your time should be spend with people who are at the same level as you to understand what you are going through. The last 33% of your time should be spent with people who are 10-20 years ahead of you so that you can use them as mentors. Tai specifically states that those who are going to represent your future should be 10 times ahead of you. By going big, you are able to expand your notions of possibilities. In the classroom, I can have students spend time working with younger students at the Elementary Level and spend time working with older students at the College or post-grad level. This will help students see the journey that they have taken. Students should learn that there is a point in which you are a novice but that is just a starting point. Eventually with work and practice one is able to achieve a level of mastery. But students should learn that mastery is an continuous goal. College and post-grad students will help reiterate this concept that there are always levels to be mastered and once you have reached that level it is time for the next level.