Coke or Mountain Dew: What does it take to be a Role Model

I believe students run to a person who has been in their shoes before and connects to their community. It is the same reason why kids run to their friends when they did something wrong or daring and not their parents. There is a gap in the generation. Parents, older siblings or figures of power consider what is right or wrong different than a younger child. In the movie we saw the teacher connected with the schoolgirl on a personal level. He was buying drugs from her brother. Yes, because of this weakness he able to connect to the girl and her troubled life. We see that his right or wrong is skewed like in the community.

On a deeper note, does she think something is wrong with her brother selling drugs? If the community she is living in finds it as a medium for earning money, would it be frowned upon? Would you be really shocked if you found one of your teachers doing drugs if your brother was working for the biggest supplier? If that doesn’t bother you than it wouldn’t bother you that he or she is getting it from your brother. Of course, your teacher tells you its wrong but what would he know, he’s not from the community he has no idea. See, being part of the community and connecting are two different things. Connecting is taking a part of yourself and attaching it somewhere else. Being a part of a community means your morals, actions and philosophies are mostly derived from your environment.

So then what’s a new role model? A role model is someone who is exemplary in whatever they do. A teacher is a role model not because of who they are outside of class but because who they are IN class. Whereas people you can look up to or run to, are people who connect with you outside of class. Can a teacher be both? Absolutely. I think one problem is that we see our teachers as role models and not some much people we can run and talk to. We seem them as infallible people. So how do we get that student-teacher relationship? Honor their world.

By honoring the world you see their hardships and strengths. And by focusing on that, it does not matter if you do crack or earn two hundred thousand dollars a year, they can realize you understand them. Does this kind of go against what I previously said? Sort of. Essentially, our job as teachers is to affect our students’ lives outside of the classroom. When we do that, we earn the student-teacher relationship. But what actions we take to get there, will determine if we are role models. Or maybe I have it switched? I’m working on this!

David A Zas