Jacinta's mentors
Most Aldeanos learn by observation and imitation, and their Keepers simply see that the children join the community's activities in the right time (which vary depending on the task and the family's culture). History is often passed by storytellers during special occasions or as a bedtime story, and not many of them see it as a keeper's job.
The Jacinta's family is different.
They carefully choose some volunteer keepers to teach a specific topic to a group of students of different ages but a shared interest.
Sure, they still learn palabras, manners, basic skills and some history by observation, and often guided by any keeper cousin or grown up. But those are reinforced and sometimes estandarized by their cultural field trips.
Not every excursion takes them out of the village, but there is always organized as a journey, exposing them to the practical side of what they are being taught.
No more than ten students per trip are allowed, five being the average size of the groups, and unlike other educational systems in Aldeas and the Ninth World, each trip is optional and includes people from different ages. This allows everyone to learn what they need of want in their own times.
Every child is encouraged to join the trips to The First House, where they inspect the words written in símbolos and learn to write and read properly, they are explained the benefits and, sometimes, they are coerced by an old cousin or parent. The same goes for some survival skills. If they still refuse, they can always join those field trips in the future, even as adults (though that's uncommon, it's never frown upon).
History, traditions, and outdated abilities are often taught in week-long expeditions following the gatherer's route. Whether they feel admiration, jelously or pitty for the ancestors that lived on those paths, those who join this trips have the chance to live their experience for a short period of time. Of course, history is still taught by storytellers ammusing their public and keepers trying to entertain the youngest kids. Many of the traditions are still practiced. But in both cases there are some form of adaptation for their current resources or audience expectations, and they don't go as deep as most of the field trips on those topics. Many join this kind of journey out of love for their traditions, looking for entertainment and leissure, for the sake of travelling, or just because a sibling or cousin does, but that doesn't mean that they won't learn something in the process, and most mentors take that in account.
A lot of the old skills are still useful, sometimes even preserving the original tools and specific techniques. In some cases the reasoning behind it has been lost, and most of the time, kids simply learn these things by following the steps of the people they trust and admire. For those who didn't have access to that example, there are field trips to look at the experts working. Children are encouraged to join the lessons on language, manners, and basic abilities, as well as those on fields they seem to have talent.
Sometimes, a group follows a new path or build a new structure, to explore new ideas. They aren't allowed to take kids with them until it's proved safe, but it's a great system to have the visionary children find themselves.
The Past
History, traditions, and outdated abilities are often taught in week-long expeditions following the gatherer's route. Whether they feel admiration, jelously or pitty for the ancestors that lived on those paths, those who join this trips have the chance to live their experience for a short period of time. Of course, history is still taught by storytellers ammusing their public and keepers trying to entertain the youngest kids. Many of the traditions are still practiced. But in both cases there are some form of adaptation for their current resources or audience expectations, and they don't go as deep as most of the field trips on those topics. Many join this kind of journey out of love for their traditions, looking for entertainment and leissure, for the sake of travelling, or just because a sibling or cousin does, but that doesn't mean that they won't learn something in the process, and most mentors take that in account.
The Present
A lot of the old skills are still useful, sometimes even preserving the original tools and specific techniques. In some cases the reasoning behind it has been lost, and most of the time, kids simply learn these things by following the steps of the people they trust and admire. For those who didn't have access to that example, there are field trips to look at the experts working. Children are encouraged to join the lessons on language, manners, and basic abilities, as well as those on fields they seem to have talent.
The Future
Sometimes, a group follows a new path or build a new structure, to explore new ideas. They aren't allowed to take kids with them until it's proved safe, but it's a great system to have the visionary children find themselves.
Structure
As usual, all the family takes part on the organization of the excursions. Everyone can suggest new mentors, or notice if a child needs to improve in some aspect or has great potential in other, allowing the keepers to recommend the right trip for them.
The resources required for this system to work, are managed by the council too, but only with the aproval of the family leaders.
But it's the mentor's council who determines if a person can be a good mentor, and set or aprove the time, duration and route for each field trip. This council is, of course a group of equals with different aptitudes who will listen to each other and find middleground if they can't fully agree.
Given their experience, their advice is sought by other mentors. They don’t always have the time to give answers immediately, but they will come back to the topic eventually, or suggest someone else to help.
The council includes experts in every skill practiced by the family, historians and elder leaders. Most of them work as mentors too, or have been at some point.
History
Ever since Jacinta and her family settled in this area, the Keepers in the family have been offering their knowledge, beliefs and abilities to their young; not in the personal, one to one, way of most Aldeanos, but in an organized system of field trips. It was an adaptation of the way Jacinta has learnt, on the path as it was required to perform a task.
This allowed them to pass the skills they had learnt while they travelled by the river, even when they didn't go too far away from the settlement. It also set the right mindstate for children to understand the history of their ancestors.
While some of the new abilities, the ones required on their new life in the "permanent camp", were taught to an apprentice as they joined the task, they often used the same technique than they used for field trips, creating what many people calls a classroom. Back then, it was a keeper passing their knowledge to all the children in the family: their history, manners, the best way to do the tasks required to survive, and some art and fun traditions. What most aldeanos and gatherers call mothering, except they would do it in small excursions most of the time, and always with kids of different ages; that required rules to keep the children safe and to optimize learning.
As the family grew into a community, the system proved to be good for all the new experiences and skills that became part of their legacy, but they had to add or adapt some of the rules for some specific cases. Even when the keepers that fulfill the role of mentors had relative freedom, there are recommended methods and a few others have been forbidden.
Shared knowledge connect us more than blood or wealth. It makes us one no matter the distance, time, and personal beliefs.
Founding Date
In a way, it's older than the jacintas
Type
Educational, School/Academy
Alternative Names
Field trips, Sharing
Parent Organization
Related Ethnicities
How to become a mentor
It usually starts when someone notices some unoficcial mentorship, or the potential of a relative or friend to pass their knowledge on. In other accasions, a person feels compelled to share their knowledge, whether it is because they find out there is need of more mentors on the topic, or because they think their knowledge is different from what is being taught at the moment. Either way, the case is taken to the mentor’s council and they start the evaluating process to decide:Most mentors in the system are natural, you know? Usually keepers and visionaries who can't help their need to share the knowledge that was shared with them, or their new ideas. But that doesn't mean you can't learn the skills to become a mentor. That's why we have field trips for that too.
Worst issue I ever had at home? It's kind of embarrassing, really. I didn't meant to break a rule. One day I was taking care of my younger cousins, explaining a theory I had. Next thing I know, an elder was accusing me of making a fishing Field Trip withoug a permission. I even checked that it was safe, but... yeah.
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