Well, I've been able to survive without standing on hills in my 12 years of cycling, although I do stand to go over tracks (no cattle guards here).
On another mentoring note, yesterday we lead our club's annual new member ride. It's not really for new members, though. Because of threatening rain, we had a smaller turnout than usual. I was sweeping the faster group and ended up coaching 2 women. One just had difficulty with hills but wanted to challenge herself by going with the faster group. She stayed with us until the half way point and then rode back on her own, after I gave her some tips on shifting for hills. The other was a very fit and younger woman who just seemed to be in the wrong gear all of the time. I ended up staying with her and finally deduced that she had no idea how to shift, even though this was her second season with the bike! We finally stopped and I figured out she had SRAM, so I remembered something about the double tap, and voila, she was at least able to shift the front. I gave her more of a lesson, with my DH when we got back.
She had had no instruction from her LBS and had no idea how anything worked. Now, I am a mechanical dunce, but the fact that the shop let this person go off with such a lack of knowledge is just horrible. Then, I helped another couple with some other things.
I got a really nice email from the first woman, thanking me for teaching her. And the couple told DH and I that we are "the perfect cycling couple."