Exemplary Exemplified

Back in university we have to take the Professional Communication Skills subject in order to complete the course. Basically what the subject is all about is presenting your ideas ideally (heh) to an audience. And we learn how to properly conduct an informative presentation, persuasive presentation and group presentation.
One of the things we learnt in preparing a persuasive presentation is the need to assert your credibility. Why are you credible to talk about this to us? What gives you the authority to talk about this particular topic? And the aim of the presentation is to sway the opinion of the audience, if not to challege their current opinion in order to facilitate a paradigm shift in how they think.
So, what makes you credible? In order to be certified as credible you must tell the audience that you had an actual experience on the subject you want to talk about. For example, if you are telling the class to stop smoking, you must be a current quitter yourself or helped someone you loved to quit smoking. In other words, one must have a hands-on experience on the subject.
You might be asking, why am I talking about credibility? In a weird collection of events, I found myself involved in the field of academics. Specifically, teaching at a high school. In a way that job is also “engineering” the society to be useful someday. As it turns out, the most difficult years to listen to advice is the adolescent years.
Bear with me; I’m still not there. As a teacher, it is imperative that one exemplifies good personal traits so that one can be an example or inspiration to the young uns. Part of the job they say. Unfortunately, a post-graduation teacher lacks the experience. The carefree spirit is still retained inside, making it hard to appear tough and exemplary.
I’ll admit it, sometimes I do show my bad sides to them. But these bad sides in a way are pretty innocent, in a sense that it wouldn’t be bad for them. You know how your teachers tell you to observe the rules such as keep yourself tidy. Me myself is quite tardy and sometimes, for the lack of a better word, messy.
In a way, the kids observe some of the carefree spirits. They are not that stupid you see. They speak. They watch. They tell stories. They share stories. Stories that may make you look bad. Which brings us to the subject again. Credibility. How are you going to tell them that that is wrong, when you do it yourself?
A popular song once said, can you practice what you preach? I’m just going to leave it here for you all to ponder.