Showing posts with label Education of children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education of children. Show all posts

Wednesday 11 September 2013

What are you teaching your children?


I recently came across important questions on a blog of a famous American businessman. He was writing in connection to the beginning of a new school year in the fall and on educational achievement of school-going children. His main thrust was financial education.

The questions: “What are our schools teaching our kids? Is it really the information they need to succeed in life? Are they being taught to think for themselves and to solve problems?” The businessman contends that our traditional schools have failed to teach children to think for themselves and all key skills they need to be successful.

It seems majority of parents or guardians of young people consider that the job of educating their children belongs first to the state, or a school. As a result, parents focus on providing food, clothing, medical care and entertaining their children (or filling up houses with gadgets). Schools then do whatever they can in fulfilling the duty of education.

I will turn the first question to the parents: what are you actively teaching your children? Although I won’t belabour the case for parents as the first educators of their children; here is an alternative question. Where else do parents go when schools and higher education system fail to be good guides and become instead sources of confusion and hindrances to true education? In the heart of the child that each one of us is we would consider ‘going home’ to a parent, to family.

So then, what and how are parents to teach their children? I suppose every parent would want to teach their child what would make them competent in life’s varied circumstances (work, leisure, difficulty, and uncertainty) and ultimately how to find happiness.

How to teach? Let’s break down the task of teaching. Teaching takes place only when its intended result -- which must be known from the start -- is achieved -- when the child is taught.
One can try to teach their child forgiveness, but they have not taught until the message reaches the child and the he or she is seen forgiving habitually (even in petty matters).  Being taught means to perceive that what the teacher has said is true and valid, to perceive why it is so and to do it.

One way parents try to teach is by modelling the behaviour they would like taught to their children. Children usually assimilate the behaviour and messages (good and bad) in the home without the need to be drummed into them. However, the teaching is not done until the message (forgiving is good, forgiving helps relationships) reaches them and they practice it.
Parents who decide to leave education to the schools will find (albeit rather late) that their children did not learn much else apart from subject facts that are soon forgotten after receiving a grade. For those who choose to take up the challenge, there’s much work to do in learning and seeking wisdom to teach one’s children.  Parents who have the time and ability may decide to home-school whereas others may only manage to teach children how to play a musical instrument. Whichever course is taken, you will have made a choice to give of yourselves and that is an invaluable legacy for your children.

What can you begin to do now? Here is some inspiration from Paul Bregman.