Importance of Role models

Explain why role models are important to young people.
A great man once said that we must teach our young ones and whenever possible not use words. By this statement he meant that were are to lead by example. There was another man who traveled to the village that the first man was born in. When he came upon the gate of the village he noticed a very old village person standing there (whether or not he was an Indian, police officer, bicker or a construction worker I’m not sure). The man said to the villager, "Is this where the great man was born?"
The old man thought for awhile and then answered, "No. No great men were ever born here only babies." The moral of the story is that no one is born great. We learn from others. There was an experiment done with children and a Bo Bo doll (the kind with sand at the base so that when you hit it, it just comes right back up). A few children were sat in the room and were exposed to a grown man hitting the doll repeatedly. After this they were taken from the room. The other group did not see the example (model) behavior. Later on they put the children in the room with the doll alone and noticed that the children who witnessed it being hit were much more violent towards the doll than the children who did not witness it. We all learn by example and that means that we need a good example to follow. Role models do not have to be live people. We can read about people like Aticus Finch in the book, "To Kill a Mocking Bird." Many Christians use Jesus as their perfect role model.