Role Models?

One slightly random follow-up thought from yesterday’s teacher related post: Why is it that parents thinks teachers need to be a role model for their pupils? Anytime there’s a minor scandal in a teacher’s private life, that’s the line that gets trotted out. I don’t get it. What pupils think their teachers are so amazing that they want to copy them? Frankly if there’s anything likely to make nude selfies seem uncool, it’s finding out your teacher is doing them.

I had many teachers, some good and some bad. I never saw any of them as a role model. My main thought was – why would any adult want to come back to school and deal with all these asshole teenagers? I can’t wait to get away from all this.

Of course I do have fond memories of some teachers. My English teacher – a Miss West – springs to mind. She had the right mix of intelligence, stern authority and care for her pupils that made an adolescent paltego quite smitten. A fact he demonstrated by walking into things, dropping books and tripping over his own feet anytime they crossed paths.

Sadly I think the site this image is originally from has ceased to be.

Author: paltego

See the 'about' page if you really want to know about me.

2 thoughts on “Role Models?”

  1. With all due respect, is it possible that you are looking at teachers and other potential role models through too narrow a prism?

    Like you, I had good and bad teachers. There were a handful I greatly enjoyed, although I was generally a poor student until college and later working on a postgraduate degree. In my youth, I was also a Boy Scout. But, the person I most emulated and saw as a role model was an uncle — a very bright gentleman with a Phd in biochemistry, patient as the day is long, soft spoken, a lover of books and music, and who always took a genuine interest in me as a child without judgment (especially about my schoolwork).

    No one can predict who will serve as a role model for a young, developing youth. A teacher, a scout leader, a coach, a relative, and/or a parent certainly can serve the purpose.

    In the end, should we not all aspire to serve as role models for young people given that in most instances we will never actually know the place we have in a young person’s life?

    It only takes one young person to see a specific teacher as a role model — someone who no other child may see in the same. If everyone maintained some small thought in the back of their head that they may serve as a role model for another person, perhaps there would be less dishonesty in the world?

    Just a thought.

    1. Thanks for this thoughtful comment. I don’t necessarily disagree with anything you’ve said here, although I also don’t think it goes against anything I said in the post.

      Certainly teachers can be role models, as can relatives, coaches, scout leaders, etc. What I was getting at in the post is the weird way it’s just automatically conflated with the teacher role, almost as if it’s the primary function.

      Personally I’d much rather have am inspiring brilliant teacher with a messed up private life than someone who is a paragon of moral responsibility but can’t teach or communicate the subject. Teachers spending 99% of their time teaching, not talking about their personal lives, so it seems really weird how much emphasis gets put on them as a role model.

      It’s certainly good when someone can act as a great role model, no matter who they are or what their relationship with a child is. But I think it’s a happy bonus to a particular dynamic, not something you should be hiring teachers for. Particularly because people often don’t even agree on what makes a good role model!

      Thanks again for stopping by to comment.
      -paltego

Leave a Reply to paltego Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *