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DEBBIE JACOB
I WOULD have grown up feeling odd and out of place if I hadn’t chosen the English-born primatologist Jane Goodall as a role model 60 years ago when I was 12. My isolation on a remote Ohio dairy farm with only cows, dogs, and horses for companions felt normal because my role model’s life matched mine in its isolation, love, and respect for animals.
In my world, my father named all 56 of his dairy cows and knew the personalities of every animal he owned. Over in Africa, Goodall named all the chimpanzees she studied, which has always been frowned upon in research. She changed the definition of man as the only tool-making animal when she witnessed chimpanzees strip leaves from twigs to fish termites from their nests.
Through my childhood experiences and those of Goodall, I knew animals had stories to tell. I never doubted that, so it never surprised me that I would spend 14 years researching and writing about this country’s police dogs.
Role models give us a purpose in life. They build our confidence, shape our values, validate the direction we choose in life, provide the certainty that we can succeed at whatever creative endeavour we choose, and remind us to be resilient and relevant. Some, like Goodall, are models for reinvention.
In her later years, Goodall reinvented herself as an animal activist and environmentalist, working tirelessly to restore and protect the world we live in for all animals and humans. She also taught me that invaluable work has no retirement age.
Goodall, 91, died peacefully in her sleep on October 1, the night before giving one of her famous environmental lectures in California. She left a long legacy of hope along with significant research in animal behaviour and ecological awareness. Her message never wavered: humans and animals share this planet. We all need to step up and do our duty to protect and preserve this space.
In all the accolades that have been heaped on Jane Goodall in life and death, one point always said in passing stands out for me, and that is she had been chosen to study chimpanzees without having any expertise in primatology, the branch of anthropology she would define and bring to worldwide attention.
The late archaeologist Louis Leakey saw qualities in Goodall, whom he had hired as a secretary, and chose her to be the first person to observe chimpanzees in the wild. He wanted someone untainted by academic bias.
Because of Leakey and Goodall, I grew up feeling I could have any job I wanted, and I grabbed them confidently even though I was unqualified. My degree in anthropology created the foundation for my life and opened doors I had no business entering.
I worked as a technical writer in Boeing Commercial Airplane Company without being trained for that profession; became a journalist with no background in journalism; taught English and history in the International School of Port of Spain and in prisons without degrees in those subjects, and became a writer who has done reasonably well relying primarily on the observation skills honed on that dairy farm.
I lived in an era when brave leaders chose people for jobs because they saw something in us. That vague yet promising notion that curiosity and desire could outweigh academic skills gave some of us opportunities to surprise ourselves and others in unanticipated occupations.
These times are defined more by a lack of trust, so taking chances on people who come to the table with nothing more than heart, ambition and a willingness to learn is out of the picture.
We value systems and programmes more than people now. School is about the curriculum more than about teachers' own creative flair. In the past, schools were one of the best places to find role models. Meanwhile, profit-driven businesses take less creative chances on unknown people who want to learn and succeed.
It’s easy to say we live in a more complex world than the one that gave me my role model 60 years ago. But that’s not true. The problem lies in our penchant for devaluing people, as we do with everything else in this world – honesty, diligence, trust, and risk-taking. We’ve lost many of the ideals that we once looked for in our role models.
Still, young people need role models more than ever. The world lacks positive guidance. Where in the world can we ever find another Jane Goodall?
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