May 23, 2007

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  The Importance of Good Role Models

  I saw the story below on the BBC in 2000 and it disturbed me greatly. I've seen this same thing play itself out in human families too; good role models are essential to the future of the species and probably the planet too.

   

  On the down side, I have seen parents who did not have good parenting role models and held the belief that children just "know things" and that the parent didn't have to teach their child anything.

   

  They became angry and frustrated when the child didn't meet their misguided expectations. By the time they realized that they have to teach their child almost everything, it was too late, either they were harming the child in some way or the child was "out of control."

   

  I got involved only because some Court somewhere decided that the children were in danger and I was supposed to put it all back together. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. I did accomplish case plan goals in over 96 percent of the cases I had over a 9-year period. I was always clear with parents that they are the ones doing all the work and that I am here to help them any way I can.

   

  I gently explained that The System identified a problem and whether they liked it or not, something had to be done to change their situation. My job, I told them, was to get The System off their backs. Most families responded to this approach and viewed me as an ally even though I was clear with them that I reported to The System. I attribute their acceptance to the fact that what I was saying was exactly what was happening and 100% true.

   

  The bottom line is, all the animals on this planet need good role models so they can become good role models.

   

  
  Elephants kill endangered rhino

  BBC, 2000

   

  Aggressive young orphaned elephants are reported to have killed 36 rhinos, including rare black ones, in a game park in eastern South Africa.

   

  According to conservationists, the young elephants have been provoking confrontations with the rhinos since they were introduced to Hluhluwe-Umofolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal.
  
  The elephants were orphaned when their parents were culled in the early 1990s in an effort to control the elephant population in Kruger National Park.
  
  As they have matured, so they have become more aggressive.
  
  Attacks on rhinos have been growing over the past two years, with 13 killed, including two black rhino, in the last five months of 1999, South African newspapers report.
  
  Spate of killings
  
  A park ranger said he had witnessed an elephant knocking a rhino over, trampling it and driving a tusk through its chest.
  
  Conservation vet Dave Cooper said that elephant and rhino routinely clash in nature "but this sort of behavior, when elephant actively go out and chase rhino, is totally abnormal".
  
  Fellow conservationist Tony Conway said similarly aggressive behavior had also been seen in Pilanesberg National Park in Northwest Province - another home for the Kruger Park orphaned elephants.
  
  However, the killings at Pilanesberg stopped when six adult elephant bulls were introduced to the park. The young ones' behavior patterns returned to normal under their influence.
  
  Officials at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park have asked Kruger Park to send it 10 adult bulls in the hope that their presence will have the same effect on the young elephants there.

   

  • 11:32 am
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