So Tiger finally came out from the woodwork last week (no pun intended) and publicly apologized for the multiple affairs that sparked a huge scandal last November. He not only apologized to his mother, wife and family, fellow players, sponsors, and fans, but also included a special and specific apology to kids that he inspired as a role model and those whom he actually helped through his foundation, The Tiger Woods Foundation.
Before I had seen the actual apology, I had run across this Bloggingheads video (part of the Opinion section in the NYTimes Online) which discusses Tiger's apology and it's affect on kids. One question that came up was whether or not kids should have role models who are famous sports stars, actors/actresses, musicians, etc.
What do you think? Personally or as a librarian or both! If we encourage kids to interact with various media then we must also expect that they will be influenced by or have opinions about the people they encounter in those various types of media.
Growing up, Dennis Rodman was my role model. My room was covered in Chicago Bulls posters, pictures cut out from Sports Illustrated and other sports magazines, and even a life size stand up of Rodman in action (I'm sure you guys are getting an 'interesting' perspective into who I am from the nature of my recent posts ha-ha!). I went down to our local and very small bookstore when his book Bad as I wanna be came out and was turned away because the book peddler didn't think it was an appropriate book for a 13 year old girl to be reading (little did she know I just turned around and bought it somewhere else!).
So what was it about Dennis Rodman that made him a 'role model' in my eyes? Well #1: he was a hell of a basketball player and I had been playing basketball since I was 6 so I respected that. #2 and most importantly: he wasn't afraid to be who he was--he stepped out covered in tattoos with a different color of hair each week and killed it on the court (you must remember that heavily tattooed basketball players were rare in the 90s, unlike today when you have dudes like Allen Iverson and Chris Anderson among countless others). Off the court he partied hardcore and did drugs, but I tended to ignore that side of him because I was only interested in who he was on the court. Whether what I saw as positive role model traits actually existed in who he was and how he represented himself, it didn't cause me to be a bad person or kid--I didn't drop out of school or start drinking and partying heavily, or anything like that (though I am heavily tattooed but I wouldn't attribute the motivation for that to Dennis). Basically, I think it came down to me being realistic about who he was both on and off the court and simply choosing to admire what I saw were the good traits that he had to offer.
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I have so many responses to your post! I may fail, but I'm going to try to craft a coherent response.
ReplyDeleteFirst, check out this rather humorous video about what kids know about the Tiger Woods scandal. They know a lot more than we perhaps think they do.
Secondly, the Bloggingheads video was rather interesting. I came away with the sense that marriage just sucks! I'm only slightly kidding, but seriously, I'm not certain how I feel about kids having famous people as role models. I'm actually one of those kids who looked up to Tiger Woods growing up. In fact, my room at my parents' house still has newspaper clippings of Tiger on the wall. I never really looked up to him as a golfer though but as an example of someone who went to a really great college and who managed to move to a higher tax bracket. To me, he was an example of someone who made it. Perhaps it's because I was older by the time he got married, but I never really cared about his personal, marital life or about his children. I know that there are kids who did or do look at and try to emulate all facets of Tiger's life, but I wonder if there are more people like me who only grasp onto certain characteristics of his life or any other famous person's life for nuggets of inspiration. From your post, it appears that you did the same with Rodman. We pick and choose what we like and don't like. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I guess I do know how I feel about kids having famous people for role models. I don't have a problem with it. Kids are smarter than we think. It's possible for them to pick and choose the characteristics that they like in a person, and they're definitely capable of discerning which characteristics should not be emulated. Now whether or not they actually do the things that they know they should do and refrain from doing the things they know they shouldn't is a different matter entirely...