The term role model is...
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The term "role model" is almost a cliche today among the professional and vocational disciplines. Unfortunately, it is not always clear as to what the idea does or doesn't include. In some areas it can be a positive factor whereas in another it may be a wrong agent. In a practical sense it may work helpfully in the case of watching how another "does it," for example, the medical practitioner or the defense lawyer or the architect. But for a speaker to ape another can produce an artificial sameness and thereby destroy originality.
The prophet, Moses, intimates in Deuteronomy 18:15-20, a proper perspective on the matter of a "role model." He lifts role modeling above the level of aping another's skills or methods and inserts into one's vocation such qualities as moral integrity, the claims of truth, and the value of human destiny which always defines the purpose of one's actions.
Sir James Paget, the noted English surgeon of the late 19th century, said one day to a group of young doctors: "Medicine works on lives. This is why it is not a fine art. It is not the art, but the stuff that is so fine. The doctor must have to do with that one substance which is above all else in nature, namely, man -- infinitely complex, infinitely precious. We touch the unseen when we lay our hands upon the human body!"
-- Macleod
The prophet, Moses, intimates in Deuteronomy 18:15-20, a proper perspective on the matter of a "role model." He lifts role modeling above the level of aping another's skills or methods and inserts into one's vocation such qualities as moral integrity, the claims of truth, and the value of human destiny which always defines the purpose of one's actions.
Sir James Paget, the noted English surgeon of the late 19th century, said one day to a group of young doctors: "Medicine works on lives. This is why it is not a fine art. It is not the art, but the stuff that is so fine. The doctor must have to do with that one substance which is above all else in nature, namely, man -- infinitely complex, infinitely precious. We touch the unseen when we lay our hands upon the human body!"
-- Macleod
