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Alumni staff of the Mason County Central school district. Photo by Mason County Press

It’s no secret to most of us that humans are affected by others. Over the course of our entire lives, humans are influenced by parents, teachers, friends, or even celebrities. This is why I believe that role models, which is everyone to some extent, must act accordingly to our social rank and use our brains.

From the moment we are born, others influence us. In the beginning of our lives, we have parents or parental figures, who will hopefully teach with an authoritative style, meaning firm yet loving, or permissive style, meaning that the parent allows the child to experiment yet are actively involved in the child’s life. Parenting like this can help point us in the right direction whether it’s encouraging good social behaviour or supporting academics.

 

However parents or parental figures can not always be a good influence. They could parent in an authoritarian style, meaning that the parent is demanding and gives little to no reward or recognition towards the child’s accomplishments. Neglectful parents can also be a negative influence. This means that the parent or parental figure is not involved in the child’s life. Both of these parenting styles tend to steer children into trouble with the law, not being socially apt, or even coercing them into doing less well at school.

 

Later on when children are old enough, they will enter the school system. Here they are introduced to a whole new group of influential adults, namely teachers. Through actions and guidance, teachers can often make or break a student, regarding their educational career or their general lifestyle. They can act as a fun teacher who keeps the class’s attention through entertainment. They can be a relatable teacher by acting empathetic towards the students’ daily lives. Or lastly they can be a negative influence to students by not respecting their students’ personal decisions thus teaching students to not respect others’ decisions either. This leaves students with a lower self esteem when they realize that others do not respect them. This could be fixed by teachers and students respecting and offering help. However, teaching styles are rarely changed. Influential people in our lives lead by example, and in this case, teachers can shape their students with their own behavior, but only if they choose to.

 

Celebrities can also be a detrimental influence in our lives. Although some idolize respectful leaders such as President Obama or President Carter both respectful politicians who tried to keep peace and do good works for the poor. We could also idolize adverse celebrities such as Kanye West or Justin Bieber, both singers who have a reputation of flaunting money and being disrespectful. We can’t choose who we see or hear. However, we can choose, to some extent, which celebrity we choose to admire

 

Something that all three of these categories have in common is that we will be exposed to all of them at some point in our lives. Some celebrities we can simply choose to overlook. However, we can’t choose whether to pay attention to teachers or parental figures in our lives. It is a conscious choice and the observers’ duty, however, to at least try to pick up the better traits from other influential people while omitting their negative traits.