I mentor a number of people, male and female, young
and old. But, on Facebook I was talking
specifically about 2 junior high school boys whom I officially mentor. I said that I prefer to call them my PROTEGES
rather than my “mentees.”
The question that followed was, “What’s the
difference between a protégé and a mentee?”
The answer:
None and much.
Linguistically, the terms are synonymous. It’s really just a matter of personal
preference in which you use.
But I call my guys PROTEGES is because I look at it
a bit deeper.
The word mentee is a derivation of MENTOR. The mentee is the object of the mentor. It implies that the human mentee is simply an
extension of his/her mentor. And even
when we talk about mentees, we usually think of them as people who are
desperate or in need of help, someone who is “at risk.”
On the other hand, the word protégé is not derived
from mentor. Protégé is
independent. Their relationship is
mutual. When I think of a protégé, I
think of someone who is destined to follow in the footsteps of greatness, and
then to excel beyond the works of his/her mentor.
The connotation of a mentee is someone characterized
by his/her past deprivation. The
connotation of a protégé is someone characterized by his/her future greatness.
I could be overthinking the concept. (I’ve been known to do that.) It doesn’t REALLY matter with term you
use. But, if you’re a mentor it does
matter that you remember your role.
As a mentor, your job is not to create more little YOUs. Your job is bring out great THEMs.
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall
Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about
the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.
If you enjoy our work, please help support our work
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Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
Makes sense, I was using similar definitions.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds a bit demeaning towards the women you mentor.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment. Please explain. It's not my intention to demean anyone and I'd like to understand how this post comes across that way to you.
DeleteThank you for the comment. Please explain. It's not my intention to demean anyone and I'd like to understand how this post comes across that way to you.
DeleteIt implies that you only look deeper into the boys you mentor, since you specifically called them out by gender.
DeleteIt may be that you only had boys who were in high school that you mentored at the time, but because of the gendered pronoun, it's easy to overlook that possibility and then assume that you do not do the same for girls.
It's also easy to imagine that you have girls whom you mentor, but do not call protégé and instead call mentee, though that wouldn't really make sense with your definition of mentee.
I hope that well explained without over-explaining or being offensive.
Your ignorance and foregone conclusions are not the fault of AG. Must be tedious going around the internet taking offence where none was intended.
DeleteThere's no such thing as "mentee." The word itself is based on a misconception. Most of our English language is derived from its predecessor, Latin. Some of it is based on French "sabotage, entrepreneur" reflecting both French invasions and influence. Some of it is even based on Viking domination/invasions of the British Isles like "steak" or "knife"
ReplyDeleteBecause people instinctively have internalized the form and structure of Latin we expect the construction words following Latin form... for example adding "er" to a verb to indicate "doer" like "lecturer" and "-ee" to mean "one who receives-" Thus from "mentor" the word "mentee"
However, "Mentor" is a NAME of a person. Specifically in Homeric Epic. Mentor was the name of a teacher. "Protege" is of French derivation for one being tutored.
It SOUNDS right but in essence, it's like we take Phil Jackson, a great coach and teacher and decide that now "Jacksonee" means one being "Jacksoned" or being molded into a great champion.