MISEDUCATING THE YOUNG CHILD: THE DEADLY DISEASE KILLING THE SOCIETY

MISEDUCATING THE YOUNG CHILD: THE DEADLY DISEASE KILLING THE SOCIETY

  November 03, 2018    InspireForte Solutions

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In any society, it is expected that education should be for the enhancement of the people, and also especially for the development of the young child until he or she becomes a source of blessing to humanity. In fact, it is through quality education that the young child is being trained on the necessity of serving his local community, and humanity, as well as bringing his own quota that will help in meeting the socioeconomic, intellectual and political needs of his nation and the world at large.

How is the young child miseducated? : Several years ago when I was still an undergraduate student in the University, I came across a bill board with a football advert on it. I was so irked with the message it passed across. It had the picture of a semi-nude lady posing with a football. Then the questions that sprang up in my mind were: What business did the lady have with a football game? Why weren’t football players used for the advert to pass across an ideal message? The truth is that our society has gone haywire and only hanging by a thread in terms of morality. The entertainment industry is not helping matters either with movie makers using obscene adverts to poison the mind of the young child – with nude pictures of thespians becoming the order of the day. Our school systems are a complete disaster and have become an incubator for corruption. Students now sort their way out of school with reckless abandon. The young child is taught how to indulge in exam malpractices and is made to see it as a norm. The business world has also taught the young child to be fraudulent, crafty and dubious in dealing with people. The young child is made to see the ethical codes of business as a food only for fools. Our politics have become ‘poorliticking’. Our leaders have turned governance into a bloody game for power-tussling megalomaniacs. These politicians teach the young child to embezzle public funds and be carefree about the affairs of people. Then our places of worship are no exception as most clergies have turned the service to God into cash-cow business empires for their selfish gain.

How can we produce the leaders of the present and future when we have failed systems that cannot appropriately train the young child? How can we give birth to a knowledgeable society of truly educated people when families no longer care about the welfare of their young children? How can the society develop when the young child is fed with negativity that can stunt his growth and development? Why won’t the society have a high number of juvenile delinquents involved in crime when the social environment is doing nothing to excite ambition? Certainly the society has forgotten that true education is the training of both the head and the heart. The problem of the society can be summed up in the words of Motivational Speaker, Myles Munroe on the study of the destructive behaviours of our modern and post-modern societies;

• They have power without purpose.
• They have money without meaning.
• They have position without a passion for living.
• They have houses, but no homes.
• They have children, but are not nurturing their sons and daughters.
• They protect animals, but kill their unborn human beings.
• They pursue power at the expense of principles.
• They sacrifice integrity for temporary pleasure.

I totally agree with him and these are the tenets the society teaches that lead to the miseducation of the young child. It’s high time we changed and looked for ways of helping the young child to develop in the right way. This could have been the reason why Abraham Licoln wrote this amazing letter to his child’s teacher. It reads:

“My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents; all adventures that probably include wars, tragedy and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage. So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him – but gently, if you can. Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader. Teach him if you can, that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollar found. In school, teacher, it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win.

Teach him to be gentle with people, tough with tough people. Steer him away from envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Teach him if you can – how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him to scoff at cynics. Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder the extreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hill. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong. Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it. Teach him to listen to everyone, but teach him also to filter all that he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be patient, let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God. This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice little boy and he is my son.”

A food for thought on this issue is a quote by John F. Kennedy which says: “A child miseducated is a child lost”. It is expedient we come together and raise the leaders of the future by giving them true education.

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