Where are the good role models?

Vice President Cheney was booed yesterday when making the first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game. It was shown during the news program I was watching yet I have seen little coverage on it today except here.

I bring this up because after a recent discussion with my friend’s father, a high school teacher at my former school, I’ve been wondering one question: Who are the current leaders for kids to look up to and learn from nowadays? And I mean leaders with integrity and class, not leaders tied to deals with Enron, Halliburton and the like but leaders with good intentions to shape a smarter, healthier, saner world.

The discussion with my friend’s father started after I asked him whether he had seen an increase or decrease in students thirst for knowledge from the time he began teaching.

“Well, we now have drug dogs at the school,” he began. “A top basketball player was kicked off the team last year when the dog found half a joint in his car during a random check.”

“He should have finished smoking it,” I half-joked as he shared more thoughts on the decline in student enthusiasm.

He continued on about how discussions that once led to thoughtful comments and ideas from kids now leave silence in the room. Nobody speaks up and when they do, it is information from the text and not an original thought. The kids just want to get through the homework taken from the textbooks and pass the exams.

It wasn’t that long ago when I was in high school and a few graduates in my class moved on to Yale, Wesley and plenty of other “great" universities. Sure, two girls were pregnant at graduation but that happened in the ‘50s, too. Some kids were even on drugs but drug dogs now? Has it changed that much at this private school where a dress code is enforced?

There are plenty of reasons why things look grim and this is based only on my old school and what I hear now: parents are rarely home, kids have immediate gratification with the Internet and video games, they get bored easily, have little patience to listen and learn, they can’t focus or decide on the numerous options available to them, they don’t hear the word “no” often enough, our education system and parenting skills are lagging, and our leaders are not the best role models.

I remember one guy in high school who drove a beautiful green BMW, a car that a teenager doesn’t need. He confessed to me one day that the BMW was a gift from his dad and, in essence, replaced the guilt his dad felt for moving away after divorcing his mom. It also replaced parenting because my friend never saw his dad and his mom was busy working.

Who was his role model?