Mentoring Our Youth in Philly and elsewhere

“My experience has been that people choose their own mentors…”

Dear friends,

Ever since the 1960s, well-meaning men in the African American community have talked about and, periodically, set up “mentoring” programs for African American youth, with special attention to boys.

At face value, it seems to be a worthy idea. The problem is: My experience has been that people choose their own mentors.

In other words, going to a young man’s house and talking with him, or taking him to a movie, as do, for instance, men who are affiliated with the Big Brothers Association, is, obviously, a nice gesture. However, the guidance and direction that that same young fellow, especially an African American one, will need in order to make his way through the foggy path of life’s journey that will eventually lead him to a worthwhile destination requires deliberate planning that is based upon the solid ability of the aforementioned youngster to know how to distinguish a “goal” from an “ambition”. Unfortunately, due to their over-exposure through the mainstream media, politicians particularly have folks confused about the difference between the two, since pols rarely speak in terms of goals, even though they usually proclaim to be doing so.

In any case, almost 30 years ago, while at Temple University, I developed a kind of intellectual model that I call the "Urban Fire Department Paradigm", in order to help people distinguish goals from ambitions. The aforementioned intellectual model goes like this: A person is named as the new chief of a fire department. A reporter asks, “Chief, what are your new goals for the fire department?” The chief confidently responds, “I’m going to have a truck at every fire in city limits, before the fire becomes dangerous.” Well, actually, that is not a goal. Rather, it is an ambition. Consequently, an answer by the chief that would represent a goal should have been, “I’m going to have a truck at every fire in city limits, in twenty minutes”. In other words, the chief does not know how bad the fire will get or how quickly it will spread; yet, s/he is determined that there will be a truck full of fire-eaters there fairly soon.

Hence, in order to help our youth maintain their focus on the future, it is best to encourage them to set goals of say 5 years ahead, regarding what they plan on doing for that specific time period. Moreover, once they become accustomed to setting specific goals, they will do that in all of their activities, whether for school. work, sports, or recreation.

By the way, as I continue to insist, let Us stop asking children what they want to be, in the context of what they will possess, when they grow up. Instead, let Us ask, what they want to be, regarding their relatedness to others. Let Us ask, "How will you help the community when you grow up?". Let Us ask, "What kind of work will you do to help people when you grow up?".

Still, ultimately, if we provide young people with proper and adequate guidance, they will do quite well, when it’s time for them to replace Us. As the great Franz Fanon warned: Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.

Finally, if people (i.e., children or adults), generally-speaking, choose their own mentors, it's better that men – and women - make themselves available in the community by setting up basketball and other such sports teams, or acting, writing, and singing clubs, for instance, to give kids, and not just boys, a chance to interact with positive community people; rather than to just go hangin’ out with a particular kid whose name has been drawn from a hat.

Besides, by this society's shaky standards, there are a lot of "successful" people, both male and female, who would be a bad example for anyone to follow. Ya dig? I'm just sayin'.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus