PEOPLE INFLUENCE...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE TALK

You may say  this is not a child and youth care work story.

But it is!

I have been frequently asked "Who in your life influenced you the most to be what you are today, and why?' 

Teaching, like child and youth care work, changes lives. The teacher/child relationship (dyad) is perhaps, not as intense, not as intimate. Connectedness within the formality of the classroom environment doesn't always allow it.

My big teacher influence, did !

He was my Art subject teacher in Secondary School.

 There was a rule. If your class teacher didn't come to the classroom, then, after ten minutes, you "Get on with your own work ". 

 Our Maths teacher was the Deputy Headmaster. Deputies were required to to teach on a very reduced schedule because of their administrative responsibilities.. We called him "Klop". The boys gave him that name because he wore metal studs in his shoes. When he walked the cements corridors, we could hear him coming with the klip. klop, klip, klop.

 That day  - no klip, klop. After ten minutes "Get on with your own work." I had a partly completed cay pot waiting to be finished in the Art Block, ...far from the regular classroom. So, off I trotted.

"Klop came", they said. "He marked yo absent in the absentee book. Quick ! Go chase the absentee boy and cross out your name.".  Bunking class was an offence punishable by the cane. Klop was known to cane very hard. "'See, I'm not absent, I'm at school." So the absentee boy allowed my name to be crossed through. 

 Next morning in assembly, the Headmaster called out the names of offenders. "Come to my office". My name was among them.

"You bunked Maths."

"No Sir."...Explanation given.

 "Bunked AND tampering with official documents. This will hurt me more than it will hurt you - BEND !'

It was just a casual conversation with the Art teacher. "I came to finish my pot...and, and. and."

 "That's not right", he said. "That's  not fair. I'm going to the Headmaster about this. I'll talk to him about this."

 Which he did.

The report back to me was that the Headmaster apologised. He couldn't take back the cuts, but he would remove my name from the punishment book.

As a small, nothing learner, what was a somewhat thin teacher/learner connection, thickened. I had been heard, listened to and acted on behalf of , against extreme authority.

 As in class, I threw pots, we talked more than before. Especially about my future. In these interactions he dropped the school tags of "You boy!'...Lodge !.  "Little Lodge !". He called me by me first name.

 In one of these conversations, he said. "I know you want to be a doctor .  I know you think your parents can't afford it. That's not why I must tell you this. You are a teacher. Your not the best artist in the class but you are an Art teacher. But - do something about your voice. It's too monotone. You become an Art teacher and I'll take you into this Art School when you graduate."

And that' changed my life. I did want to teach Art. I knew it was my real career passion.  And that is what happened.

Art teacher in his Department..

Art teacher educator at a University,

Art therapist in a Child Guidance and Research Centre.

Clinical Director of Children and Youth Care residential facilities.

 Teacher of child and youth care workers

This is not a child and youth are story, you may say.

 BUT IT IS.