Kids Need Mentors
Nick De Bois argues that if we are to stop social unrest in the future, then children need more stable and admirable mentors.
13 Dec 2011, 16:11
Frankie Cocozza: Not a good role model
Over the next few years explanations for the London riots of last summer will continue to be proposed, until eventually there are more theories than there were rioters. Without wanting to put forward or support just another meaningless theory, as someone who stood amongst rioters in my constituency of Enfield North, I can’t help feeling that our country’s culture of instant gratification made a contribution.
Aside from the necessary punishment of the criminal behaviour that made up this summer’s disturbances, it is vital that we fully understand and tackle the root causes and do what we can to prevent the scenes from being repeated. The government’s response to the riots continues to be wide-ranging, tackling entrenched problems like family breakdown, educational under-achievement and welfare dependency. I have written previously on how I think the third sector and the Big Society can go a long way to tackling these issues but there is a new, and more nuanced point that I think is worth consideration when looking at the causes of the riots.
Iain Duncan Smith first highlighted the dominant presence of an ‘X-Factor/ Big Brother’ style celebrity culture as an illustration of what makes young people think they have the right to material goods now, regardless of whether they have earned them. By a culture of ‘instant gratification’ I mean exactly this appreciation of happiness given or taken over happiness earned. Today we have the balance seriously wrong between these two, and we must strive to change it for the sake of future generations.
Today’s popular culture thrives on the story of an individual instantly going from something to nothing, from zero to hero, from unknown to superstar. Reality TV can’t be solely blamed for such a culture, but it clearly plays a role in creating unmanageable expectations that are ultimately damaging to our society’s development. This modern celebrity culture is a relatively new phenomenon, fuelled by social networking and 24 hour news. The life cycle of a celebrity has gone from a number of years to a number of days or even hours. Individuals are thrust into the limelight, held and worshipped as idols, and then cast back into the homogenous public. This makes the number of celebrities all the greater, and the perceived chance of becoming a ‘somebody’ overnight all the more realistic.
The media is not to blame, and nobody is suggesting banning these programmes through some kind of Orwellian monitoring. We simply need to counterbalance the prevalence of instant happiness with the more sustainable and attainable goal of happiness earned.
One clear place to start is through mentoring. I often wonder how many of those rioters and looters had ever met someone with a real occupation - a doctor, an entrepreneur, an engineer, a graphic designer - and been given the opportunity to understand their career, their livelihood and how hard they worked to achieve what they had achieved.
When you walk into a classroom and ask the children what they’d like to be when they grow up the responses clearly don’t include any of the above. When I was young kids wanted to be footballers or pop stars, and there is nothing wrong with that. I’m not saying four year olds should want to be structural engineers or architectural surveyors. But surely there is something wrong when young people want to be for example a Frankie Cocozza. Having never worked for an over-inflated positions in society, this nevertheless perpetuate the false idea that life’s ideal can be achieved in an instant.
We need to be encouraging businesses to engage with their communities by sending in some of their managers or employees to provide real role models. This function could also be fulfilled by the third sector on a borough-wide scale, through emulating a model that occurs elsewhere within Corporate Social Responsibility. A not-for-profit, funded by the government, takes individuals from businesses, takes them through a basic training course, and then places them in primary schools for an hour a week, for a few months. This way business puts something back, schools are provided a mentoring scheme without placing an unnecessary strain on teachers, all for the council funding of one member of staff within the third sector to co-ordinate. This kind of early intervention is absolutely crucial to turn our society around, and it needs to be delivered and coordinated by charitable organisations for it to be truly effective.
I don’t unrealistically believe that kids will stop aspiring to be celebrities or footballers at a young age, but at least the seeds will be sown in their heads that there are inspirational figures out there who worked hard to get where they are. When young people transition into secondary education maybe then they aren’t thinking of their x-factor audition, but focusing that little bit more on their GCSE’s, so that they can get that apprenticeship or college place they’re after, and follow in the footsteps of more grounded, human role models. It may be optimistic, but with the help of the third sector and sufficient funding, I believe it’s entirely realistic.
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Please dont say that you believe young people aspire to be like Frankie Cocozza; they really don't.
Also, surely the X Factor shows young people working very hard over a period of time to achieve a goal? I can't imagine Little Mix were breaking into Footlockers in South Shields, High Wycombe or Romford last summer, more likely they were working on their rather lovely voices.
16/12/2011 16:26