The complete set of 198 Hints are available in paperback from the CYC-Net Press store.
Listen
We child and youth workers are often expected to be role-models. Many would say that it’s part of our job. I suppose it is true that for impetuous kids we could model patience and for biased kids we could model tolerance ... and so on for all of the deadly sins and the godly virtues.
But a simple energy paradigm would tell us that there are too few of us to go around if we were the only role-models. And anyway, who would want all the youngsters in our programs to be like us?!
I can think of any number children and youth I have worked with to whom I could have said in all honesty: "You are my role-model." The twelve-year-old who played such brilliant chess while I groped to see just one move ahead; the nine-year-old who genuinely sympathised with me when my car had a flat; the fifteen-year-old who had in her head the guitar chords for hundreds of songs; the fourteen-year-old, his body crippled and twisted by osteomyelitis, who faithfully travelled with the soccer team so that he could "fetch the ball" when it was kicked out of play; the brave 16-year-old who disarmed his drunk father when his family was in danger ... the dozens of kids who demonstrated untold generosity and forgiveness and courage ... and who persevered against all odds to reach quite unexpected heights.
Today in our practice, role-models though we might be, we will look amongst our clients for signs of their gifts and strengths, and perhaps change their trajectory for ever by telling them, with all honesty, "You are my role-model ."
