Teachers of the Years Awards

(Proverbs 1:8 KJV)  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

We see two conflicting trends in education.  On the one side we see an accelerating dumbing down of what is being taught and what is expected.  While words like “rigor” and “challenge” are used ad nauseam, the bar is continually being lowered.  Big words are removed from the books.  Group work allows the few who have skills to carry those who don’t.  At the same time the system presses everyone to go to college.  It is considered almost a civil right to have a college degree, even if you can’t read the diploma.  Education is defined as what schools give you.

Not so the book of Proverbs.  Here it is laid on the parents to teach their children.  Obviously they do it by example but they are also to do it by word.  I doubt if it was original with my father but one lesson he gave us was, “If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right.”  And then he went out and lived it.  If the contract called for 3 ½ inches of concrete we understood that meant a minimum, not a maximum.  Those kind of lessons go a long way to making mature adults.

So?  Instruct your children.  You were their first teacher.  You are their most important teacher.  Do not abandon them to people who get paid to do the job.