Ancient Advice

By Meg Sommerfeld

One of the oldest and most well-known mentoring programs, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, turns 75 this year. But the original Big Brother has been around much longer--since the days of ancient Greece, in fact.

He was a character named Mentor in The Odyssey , the adventures of the wandering hero Odysseus. Although Mentor, a trusted friend of Odysseus, appears only briefly in Homer's epic poem, he plays a pivotal role, providing advice and encouragement to Odysseus' son Telemachus during his absence.

Over the past two decades, dozens of mentoring programs have been launched to link young people with caring adults who can help them weather the stormy seas of growing up. They've generated newspaper headlines and won praise from politicians on both the left and right. The most successful ones have grown quickly--and inspired program spinoffs--to keep pace with...