hi all, I recently received my debate topic, "that out role models are failing us"
I think and think and think, but the points I come up with can easily be attacked and visa versa for the opposition.
anyone got any ideas?
"That our role models are failing us"

-Emma-

There are many people that are currently in the spotlight that perhaps are not the most savory of personalities, however what qualities make a "role mode". Is it someone who is famous, a politician, a religious figure, or some other moral leader.

I don't think that it is fair for someone to be held responsible for other people's actions just because they are famous. Like all of the rappers / sports stars / celebrities that are in jail for drugs and assault, perhaps they shouldn't be doing what they are doing, but they shouldn't be held responsible for "teaching" kids the wrong things. As for politicians, the government is a very different problem from role models. Moral / Religious leaders perhaps should be held to a certain standard, but they kind of volunteered for it.

I think that blaming all of the problems of society on the supposed "role models" is unreasonable scapegoating because we choose what we value and how we act with the help of our family, friends, community, but most of all ourselves.

"It takes a village to raise a child" ---african proverb--- (not an individual)

+++Seth_X+++

~~~ "If you feed a man a
fish, you feed him for a
day. If you teach him to
fish, you feed him for
life."

Are our role models failing us?

First define what makes a role model - a celebrity is not necessarily a role model, just because he/she is famous. They should have some attributes that others look up to and want to imitate.

That said, yes, they are failing the public, but the failures have as much to do with the media as with the role model themselves. Because when a sports star hits someone, or a politician/religious figure is caught with his/her pants down, we are let down, and the cultural cynicism just gets raised another notch. As such, there are very few role models these days, because celebrities take the perks of being famouse as a right, and not a responsibility. And as our so-called role models continue to behave as if fame gives them the right to act like spoiled children, instead of acting in a manner we should respect, and entire generation is growing up believing this to be the role to follow. (Get rich so you can do drugs and carry guns)

However, the role models of the past were no angels, either, they just weren't as publicized. Babe Ruth drank and whored more than any current ball player, Ted Williams was a raging racist, and FDR and JFK had mistresses throughout their terms of office. The difference is that these failures were not blared across the news papers.

As Lady Macbeth said:
Do not stand upon the
order of your leaving,
just get the heck out of
here! (thanks RBG)

I sense that the problem is looking to professional athletes, movies stars, rap stars, politicians, etc., and expecting THEM to be the role models. Some are very successful and have integrity. However, the media covers the more dastardly deeds done by the few abusers and other misfits.

Rather, role models can be found in your own community and sometimes even in your own home. I think most people will point out a favorite teacher, neighbor, friend, parent, grandparent, etc. that positively affected their life.

The everyday heroes are just the ones doing everyday things extraordinarily well. Not flashy, sexy or dramatic. Just consistent. And successful.

These local heroes make great role models. And you don't hav to look far to find them.

Good luck with your debate. Frank

The only relevant role models are those who seemingly live their lives the way we would wish someday to live. We find role models in literature, on TV, in movies, in the political arena, in our everyday lives, and none of them is perfect. A role model is an ideal, as is perfection. Do they fail us if they do not meet our standards? Perhaps. But it is a matter of degree. We seek our role models guided by our expectations of perfection. There simply is no perfect role model, just as there is no perfect human. If we expect perfection, of course, they will fail us.

Is that we're choosing the wrong ones. It's not enough for a role model to be simply successful - hell, everyone on the OJ Simpson case made millions off the murder of innocent people - they need to be a successfully good person. We all want to be good people, who else should we model ourselves after?

"So it goes."
~ meghann

I think the problem is that we do not see the whole picture. We see famous people put on a happy face and go out into the public. What we do not see is that they are probably a lot more like us then we think. I think we have to realize this so that we do not try and be something that we are not. It is not that our role models are failing us but that we are not realizing that we do not need to change ourselves to be who they are.

If you mean like role model as in, someone in the eye of the public, than you are looking in the wrong place. A role model is someone you should be able to look up to for what they do and who they truly are. Not someone that is putting on a facade as a career. Look around you and really think about what people are doing, to help others, the community, themselves. i know that famous people give to charity, and they do help others, but there are so many people that do the same thing and they get little to no recognition for it. Its not all about publicizing when you do something good...

*~*jessi*~*

"The love that hurts the most is the one that lasts the longest, hurts the deepest, and feels the strongest."

absolutely...the people that we look up to deny being role models at all, but whether they like it or not, they are....I definitly think our role models are failing us.

about this subject if you want because i am only 14, But i believe EVERYONE is a role model. Whether we relize it or not, everyone has someone who looks up to them or admires them. People who are in the public spot light especially because they have alot of people who look up to them. Little kids have there reasons for wanting to be Britney Spears or Christina Aguilara, and when they see such singers wearing the clothes they do, or acting the way they do, they dont relize that not everything they do is a good thing, Because to them they are perfect. I think that such a subject as "are our role models failing us" is based on what you think a role modle is. There are always going to be people who dont live to what society believes is exceptable, but there are also the people who set good standards for peope to admire. And because everyone has someone who looks up to them, you cant expect everyone to be a good role model....

(((DREAMER)))

When a role model "fails us", that person ceases to be a role model. Like when the professional baseball team accepted money to throw the world series years ago, they were no longer heroes.

But since you say this is a topic you have been assigned to debate, I thought I might try to come at it from a different angle. It would help if you told us which side you are debating. The fact that the question is even asked implies that they haven't always failed us, but only recently. That is, "Are our role models starting to fail us". An argument could be made that current role models (that is, celebrities, actors, musicians and sports heroes) no longer seem to feel as great a responsibility to maintain an appearance of model behavior as their counterparts from a previous era once did. There used to be a sense of decorum, or responsibility to maintain at least the appearance of wholesomeness.

You could blame the media for being hungry to publish slander more than they were in previous generations. President Kennedy is reputed to have had a less than perfect lifestyle, but somehow the news media looked the other way. Now they go out of their way to dig up dirt. Thus the role models haven't changed (failed) but the media makes it seem so.

A second argument is that our role models have changed. Once they were political or military leaders (Eisenhower, FDR, Kennedy, Churchill) or from other places in life, but now they are entertainers. Political or business leaders are famous for achieving noble things. Entertainers are famous for, well, less noble and more "bad-boy" things. So once again our role models have changed. They aren't failing us so much as we are choosing poorer quality role models to follow.

This is a harder argument to sustain but it might work if you choose your examples carefully.

Good luck.

First of all why are these people considered to be our role models? Is it because they are rich? Is is because they have the perfect homes? Is it because they have perfect bodies? Or is just because we would rather focus on them than on ourselves?

I think we put too much pressure on the "famous" people to be perfect role models for all of the young people, that we set them and ourselves up for disappointment. Do you think that if there weren't millions of "fans" out there waiting and watching them everytime they were in public, that there would be so many famous people who turn to drugs and alcohol?

I am not saying that it is the public's fault that these people have done this, but why should they be any more to blame for our shortcomings than we are for theirs?

If Bill Clinton was just another man in your neighborhood who had an affair, would it have been on TV and in the newspapers for countless months? If he hadn't been the U.S. President would his personal life have almost caused the end of his job? Probably not. Yes, he should be held to higher standards because he was the President and he did choose his career, but if he wasn't the President, would he have come close to losing his job? If everyone who acted in the manner that some of these role models acted in, there would be no explosion of media coverage.

Perhaps it is time to stop blaming others and look to ourselves for our faults...we could blame everyone else for our problems, but unless they personally forced you to take drugs, have an affair, turn to alcohol...think about who is really to blame, in most cases, it is noone but ourselves.

"When man sees an obstacle he can't destroy, he destroys himself."
-Ryszard Kapuscinski

i agree with you and disagree with you

1st i agree that we need to start looking at our faults as humans and relize that not all people in the media are role models...

but i disagree with you when u say that if any other person did what Bill Clinton did they wouldnt be put in the same amount of trouble. When a person chooses to be in the public eye..they automatically accept the position of being a role model, whether they want to or not. and no people are not forcing kids to take drugs or drink, but if you see someone you admire doing somthing, your going to be tempted to try it!..

i think if anything more pressure should be put on the people in the public eye..to act more appropriatly. But whos to determine whats appropriate and whats not?!...

(((DREAMER)))

I really appreciate ur ideas... it helped me alot with my debate, so thanks a bunch!

*donester*