I'm sure the familiar phrase "you learn something new every day" could have been coined just for youth workers.
You see, unlike our colleagues in formal education, our curriculum focuses on what young people want to learn, when they want to learn it. And as experienced practitioners know, whenever you let young people set the learning agenda, you never quite know where it will take you.
When one group of young men I'm working with wanted to do some work on male grooming, I headed straight for the internet. I may use an exfoliating face wash and pack a lip balm, but I'm no grooming expert.
Providing you stick to reputable sites, the internet has made researching issues and preparing for sessions quicker and easier. But it's also made the process more bizarre.
Take my discovery that men can now insure their chest hair with Lloyds of London for a cool million pounds. Apparently, any payout is dependent on two independent specialists verifying that at least 85 per cent of hair has been lost through an accident. The mind boggles. Who? Why? What for? And where do you find a chest hair specialist?
Anyway, that was just one of several bizarre pieces of information I learned while putting together some much more useful factsheets on grooming know-how.
I must admit that I printed off the chest hair story because it's guaranteed to start off a good discussion about why anyone would want to insure a body part and which body part you would insure, and for how much. All of which should let us explore attitudes to body image, beauty and society's obsessions with body shape and certain body parts. Well that's the plan.
As always, anything could happen on the night. And it probably will.
In the end, good youth work is young people and youth workers learning together. Far from being a disadvantage, the lack of an expert is always a great leveller. And it makes preparing for sessions very enlightening.
- Michael Bracey is principal youth officer for Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, michael.bracey@haynet.com.
