Mentorship Across Difference as a Right

Though Sor Juana's access to formal education was restricted, she cultivated relationships with mentors and allies who supported her intellectual work despite social risk. She understood that marginalized intellectuals need communities of support—people who believe in their capacity and help them navigate exclusion. For children's rights, mentorship across difference means ensuring children have access to models and guides who share or understand their identities and can help them navigate specific barriers they face. A girl interested in science benefits from mentors who are women scientists and understand gender-based obstacles. A child from a marginalized racial group benefits from mentors who can help them develop critical consciousness about systemic racism while building academic confidence. Mentorship is not charity but a right—children deserve access to those who can show them pathways forward, challenge limiting narratives about their potential, and provide emotional and intellectual support. Sor Juana's relationships with allies demonstrate how mentorship can sustain intellectual work even under oppressive conditions. Creating structures for mentorship across difference—in schools, communities, and institutions—is a children's rights imperative. Such relationships help children develop resilience, ambition, and the sense that their intellectual development matters to others, which is foundational for sustained learning.