Gatekeepers They Are, Sleepers Are We, Part 5

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” is a Latin phrase variously translated as "Who will guard the guards?", "Who watches the watchmen?", "Who shall watch the watchers themselves?", 
or similar.
 Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis,
known in English as "Juvenal," was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenal  

In part 1 we learned that a “gatekeeper” could be an adult adviser to a youth club and that the gatekeeper’s personal limitations, caused by her / himself or by others, could harm youth.  Such harm would come mostly through missed opportunities for education, skills demonstration or recognition.  In parts 2, 3, and 4, we looked at examples of missed opportunities.  Is there anything which we can do?  (I am trying to overcome the all-too-human tendency to whine and withdraw.)  

For youth “on the other side of the gate”, an adult gatekeeper’s personal limitations, because of a lack of experience, time or desire, can be overcome by increasing the number of gatekeepers.  The original gatekeeper probably would not resent the other gatekeepers, but would be cautious to ensure that her / his charges not be put in any danger.  Also, the issue of liability would arise.  The other gatekeepers would have to be screened, as through fingerprinting and background checks.  

For youth whose adult gatekeeper is hamstrung by rules made by others, the solution is to engage the youth during their free time, when the gatekeeper is not responsible for them, as changing the rules will be difficult.  But in order to engage youth during free time, there has to be a strong draw to whatever activity or program we wish to bring to them, as free time is scarce and we would be competing for whatever free time which the youth had.  

For adults “on the other side of the gate”, a gatekeeper’s personal limitations would be hard to overcome, because of his or her sense of power, the amount of pay which he is receiving or the fear that new gatekeepers would learn about a dirty little secret of his.  As an example, it would be hard to get government’s cooperation to open its public files.  

For adults whose gatekeeper is hamstrung by rules made by others, the only solution, certainly not easy, is to change the rules.  Now, there are different ways to change rules;  the best way is to create a rule which creates positions for a large number of gatekeepers and enables them to have equal authority and access.  An example of this is enlarging a city council so that a large number of people have access to public documents.  

September 20, 2007