INDEX OF QUOTES
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To be able to promote the continuing development of children and young people, the child and youth care worker will also be a growing and developing person. Adults who accompany children along life’s unfolding path of discovery and growth are invariably more helpful than those who shout from the sidelines. If we are to be adequate role models for young people to follow, then we should at least be leaders, and leaders do not stand still. When children see us engaging life, setting ourselves new goals, wanting to learn more, making mistakes, learning from them and trying again, they are encouraged themselves and they take new hope for their own lives. Certainly it is noble for adults to give generously of their time and talents for difficult and disadvantaged children, but it is unintelligent and self-defeating if they do this at the cost of their own growth and fulfilment. Care workers who have themselves stopped developing become uninteresting and boring to the children; they become ineffective team members and an embarrassment to their colleagues. A sure cause of burnout is a sense of sameness and repetitiveness in the child and youth care worker’s life. Continuing self-development avoids burnout. Care workers who take their work seriously will seek regular opportunities for personal and professional stimulation. Physical fitness, recreation, entertainment and social pursuits will be as important to them as attending courses, polishing their practice skills and keeping up with their reading. |
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