American Idol (not the music kind)

As a culture, America has largely outlived the idea of mentorship. For the most part we no longer make our employees complete an aprenticeship prior to graduating them into the real workforce, and we continue to have dual-income families which leads to kids at home alone more frequently. While, to some degree, I can see we've sacrificed some of these practices out of perceived necessisty, the more our young folk lose contact with responsible, upstanding adults, the more we leave the future up for grabs.

By and large, whether we like it or not, many of us are who we are because of what we learned from our parents, caretakers, teachers, or coaches...our own personal American Idols, if you will. Of course rarely did we adopt or reject practices consciously...more often than not we simply observed what our folks did over and over again, then when we faced a similar problem/situation, we fell back on our knowledge base - whatever we'd observed in life - and acted in kind (or in the oposite manner if that's what our observations told us might be better). Put that into real life. I'm no saint, but I largely am who I am because of my parents and my youth pastors. Much of what I know about computers came from watching others. Much of what I know about judging came from watching others and listening to others. Almost all of what I know about teaching comes from having been taught by the best our district had to offer. I'd be willing to bet that, when you peel away all the other stuff, almost all of you are largely the same.

And who/what are our young people around now? Parents are away, so we have the TV and internet to acompany them. We're short on good, qualified staff and becoming more "efficient" with our funds, so computer-based training has become much more prevelant. And many of the best veteran teachers are retiring soon, while some of the best would-be educators are being priced out of the market because a teacher's wage can barely support an individual in many areas, let alone a family.

I was one of the lucky ones. I had two loving parents to raise me the whole way, along with caring teachers and pastors as significant supporting staff. I'd encourage all of us to do the same for the young people we're around, especially teens. Not coincidentally, many of us go to tournaments or conventions where we're around that crowd. By no means am I suggesting that we all have to turn on our halos and walk on eggshells. I'd just hope that, in some way, be it coaching, mentoring, training, or whateva, we've all passed on some of what we know to those younger than us so that they can carry on or even best whatever success we've had in our lives.


Except for Kiki. Please, somebody lock that guy up before he corrupts an entire generation...