As you can see from Abraham Maslow’s pyramid depicting the Hierarchy of Needs, some basic needs are more important than others. For example, if someone is very hungry, their need for food becomes more important than anything else they might want like learning needs or mentoring needs.
Maslow also thought that as people grow, their needs change. At first, babies only care about basic things like food and water. As they grow, they start to care more about love and friendship. After they feel loved, they begin to focus on gaining respect from others and achieving things that make them proud.
At the top of Maslow’s pyramid is something called self-actualization, which means reaching your full potential. This can mean different things for different people—like a musician wanting to create music, an artist wanting to paint, or a scientist wanting to discover new things. Maslow believed that you can only focus on these higher goals after your basic needs, like food, safety, and love, are taken care of.
What we can take from this work from Maslow and use towards our teaching and mentoring approaches is that in order to be receptive to high levels of growth through mentoring or learning experiences, the people you work with in a school have to have their basic needs met first. This applies to both the young students and the adults you support. Let’s use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to examine how a mentor can ensure their mentee’s basic needs are met, starting from foundational needs.