The role of the KMO mentor
The success of each Young Explorer Club depends most on their Guardians – on their willingness to do something new, to create opportunities for children or young people to develop, a safe space to experiment, to learn and to develop the skills to be in a group and to acquire new competences.
Caregivers are an extremely diverse group – they include not only science teachers, but also mathematicians, humanists, active parents, library and community centre staff and even nuns or priests.
What they all have in common, however, is openness, enthusiasm and a willingness to go into unknown areas of knowledge and reality. This willingness to experiment requires considerable courage – everyone will sooner or later be faced with answering the club members’ question: “I don’t know, but let’s try to think together why that is and experiment”. As we all know very well, not many adults can do this easily….
There are a number of working models that Keepers use in their daily work. Some share their passion with Club members – together they conduct astronomical observations or organise trips to the forest or meadow to observe birds. Others become almost ordinary Club members – they try to turn their lack of theoretical knowledge in natural sciences into an asset and become one of the young – at least in spirit – explorers, seeking answers together with the Club members, almost becoming one of them.
The role of Club Supervisor often goes beyond the already great challenge of creating a comfortable space for club members to experiment and explore the world as independently as possible.
Moving from simple experiments to more complex observations, investigations or projects, they and their club become an important part of the life of their local communities. They organise Young Explorer Club Festivals, experiment nights, demonstrations for younger children, parents or grandparents.
It is not, however, about the Guardian being a 21st-century Strong Woman, a person alone changing the environment, it is about involving everyone concerned – other teachers, parents, their superiors, parents or local authority representatives – in the club’s activities, even if they do not yet know how much good they can do by doing so and what value the existence of a club in their neighbourhood brings.
Changing the local community – whether at school or even on a local level – starting with experiments that are seemingly simple at first sight, can be a fascinating adventure and a chance for personal development for the mentor as well. At the same time, it is a source of great satisfaction to observe the extraordinary development of club members and to realise that by participating in the great family of Young Explorer Clubs, we are changing Polish education and shaping a new generation of active, critically thinking and well-educated people.