Working with High School MathematicsCompetitions and Mentoring Students

摘要

Those of you who had an opportunity to hear and/orread the recent NPR report about me6 might be misledby the title, expecting a list of criteria that might qualifyone to become not just a mentor but a successful one too.Unfortunately, I can’t give a complete list of the necessaryrequirements for such an accomplishment. Moreover, I willbe the first to admit that my own successes were mostlyaccidental—being at the right place at the right time anddoing the right things most of the time. Nevertheless, Iwant to recommend mentoring as a form of teaching,which became a form of public service in my case, sincemost of my mentoring was done in addition to my regularteaching duties. In fact, most of my mentoring was doneto students at the high school level while I was teaching atthe university level.