Think about the many things that we try to teach our
children as they grow up. Many of those
things center around what is right and what is wrong. As parents we want our children to be good,
law abiding kids who respect the rights of others and who follow the Golden
Rule.[1] The rule that simply says, ‘do unto others as
you would have others do unto you.’
That’s all that we should want for our children. But realistically, many
of us as parents fall way short of preparing our children for the world of
today that they are about to enter. As a
matter a fact, I believe that if all we teach our children is the Golden Rule,
we are setting our children up for failure.
Because the truth is, as important as it is to teach our children to
respect others as we would wish to respected, this is not the world. This is not the world that will act in kind
to our loving children, whom we continue to try and convince that the world is
a place that will treat you as you treat it.
We are setting our children up for a tremendous disappointment unless we
take the Golden Rule off of the table, or make it the very last thing that we
teach our children, even as they begin taking their first steps in life.
Train up a child in
the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.[2]
It is only right that we teach our children to respect
others as we would them to be respected, in all that they do, and with all whom
they meet. But here is where we, as
parents and communities, maybe falling short.
We focus only on how our children should treat others, instead of
instructing them to see how others will treat them. Many of our children, whom we want only the
best for, are often victimized by the very society that is supposed to protect
them, or make a way for them.
If we were only talking about bullies, pedophiles, or other
sexual deviants, that would be one thing.
But our children have to be on guard for other aspects of their lives that
under the code of law, puts them at grave social risk early on in their lives,
and possibly, by design. And if we
aren’t preparing our children to be on guard for educational systems that
cheats them by not providing books or qualified teachers, then we are
short-changing our children. If we
aren’t preparing our children by telling them that police officers are only
there to serve and protect a select few, then we are doing our children
injustice. Whether it is education,
criminal justice, healthcare, economics, or politics, we can no longer send our
children out of our homes armed with just the Golden Rule, and then try to
console them because everyone else is inclined to steal from them the very best
that life has to offer. In actuality, right
from wrong is no longer relative to the society that currently exists, and the
sooner our children learn this, the better.
As parents and communities, we need to put into context many
important issues for our children that no longer focuses only on the differences
between right and wrong, but between the rich, and the impoverished; the
powerful and the weak; the politically connected versus the politically
disenfranchised. Our children need to understand why a Constitutionally-guided
country makes exceptions for crimes when it comes to those who are well-off,
and literally plans prison populations for those who are economically
disadvantaged, because right is relative.
It will be hard to explain, but our children will need to understand
that if they are White that it is okay to be prejudice, racist, feel superior,
and that if they are anything but White, that they should acclimate themselves
to a life of fighting to prove that they are not second class citizens, and
that because they are anything other than White, that right is relative.
We should prepare our children for a life that confusingly
presents the fact that those who look like them aren’t always in their corner,
and anyone who is different from them, may well be their best friend. We should prepare our children for a life
where being on opposite sides of the (political) aisle means that you don’t
collaborate or partner with anyone who is not of your party unless it benefits
you specifically and to hell with your constituents. Certainly our children will need to be duly
informed that if they are against initiating, against continuing, or wishing to
stop war, that they will be considered as cowards and un-American.
As oppose to teaching our children right from wrong, we
should instead, focus on their sexuality where the world will judge them
because they will have to defend what we all pretend to know, in our heart of
hearts, that because they are gay or lesbian, that they are supposed abominations
before God, and couldn’t possibly be as much as a gift of God as anyone
else. Teaching therefore of our
children, that we should be the judge of all, who is seemingly not like us.
We should in effect, dispense with the Golden Rule teachings
to our children. Instead, inform them that their roles in life will be predisposed
to being judged as to whether they are ready to be subjected to psychological
evaluations that in themselves seem to be predisposed to medications designed
to create a psychological profile akin to if not exactly Attention Deficit
Disorder, or Attention Defecit Hypertensive Disorder (ADD, or ADHD)[3]
that in our day was once considered needing a good wacking across the butt,
detention, or both.
Last, but not least, we can’t teach our children right from
wrong if they don’t know that they will forever be pigeon-holed as a leader or
follower, a hero or a looser, rich or poor, good-looking, or unattractive. They will in effect be labeled and have
pressure applied to them to be anything other than a child. Therefore, I believe we as parents, and
communities, have our work cut out for us.
I believe that for many of us as parents, we think that many
of the things that our children will ever really need to know or be aware of,
won’t matter until they are in their early teens, or maybe, as a result of possibly
naïveté and perhaps rose-colored glasses as parents, we don’t believe that our
children need to be exposed to a lot of things that this harsh, cruel world has
to deliver until they are adults. We as
parents try to take the most wondrous route possible to preserve our children’s
innocence. God knows that our children
grow up fast enough, and that anything that we can do to preserve their youth,
we do so, lovingly. But, we maybe doing
our children a tremendous injustice, perhaps even, a grave injustice.
The world at large presents to us not only as parents, but
also as communities, challenges that we can no longer protect our children from
observing, or being apart. Yes, the
world drops at many of our doorsteps great and positive opportunities, and we
should be prepared and quick to take advantage of them. But the world, in its unapologetic manner
drops at many of our feet, instances of crises, biases, and outright injustices
that we can no longer allow our children to be shielded from when it is
convenient. The world is no longer
compromising or accommodating. So, as
parents and as communities, we need to step up our roles to teach our children
far more important things than the difference between right and wrong, let
alone, the Golden Rule.
In essence, the difference between right and wrong should be
moved far down the list of those things that will most likely impact our children’s
lives, almost immediately to their being able to walk, speak and, bless their
hearts, comprehend so quickly of the things that are going to be happing early on
in their young lives. Let’s make no
mistakes, all of our children are extremely perceptive at a young age. So what do we focus on right now that right
and wrong has been pushed to the back of the list to teach them? Below, in no particular order, are five areas
that I believe we need to focus on as it relates to helping our children mature
into the world today, as it relates to education, criminal justice, healthcare,
politics and economics. You may have
other areas that you believe are more important. But the point is, we can no longer allow our
children’s intelligence be insulted by putting right and wrong as the exclusive
lesson that we teach our children, to the disadvantage of knowing how to
reasonably protect themselves in the world at large. Let’s discuss.
Education-If
we had to prepare our children for education, it would be to the effect that
mothers and fathers have to begin almost at conception to find the perfect
outlet to augment the brilliance of our children to be. Almost instantly, our children will need to
begin studying to be tested as gifted.
They are not going to walk their little happy selves into a given school,
be a public or private, ready to prepare to color within the lines or
circles. No, our children will have to
know Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (E=mc2)[4] in
order to get into the “best” school(s).
Educating our children on education will also require them to understand
that possibly, they may have to attend a school that is in a different
neighborhood despite the fact there is one next door, or perhaps no further
than the corner grocer. Prepare our
children for that part of their education where they may have to be tested on
tests for the sake of testing, not on independent thoughts. As a matter of fact, it would be great to
ensure that our children never worry about thinking for themselves, as that is
greatly frowned up, here in
Criminal
Justice-Where else should we teach our children right from wrong if we are
not talking about crime? The problem is that right from wrong as it relates to
the criminal justice system begins to crack and crumble when men and women are
falsely arrested or accused and subjected to a system that grows merely by this
offensive approach to justice. Those who
are innocent suffer injustices that our criminal justice system chooses to believe
that everyone is guilty unless they are decidedly innocent. What we need to teach our children is to
prepare for their innocence to always be in question to their detriment, as the
Criminal Justice system imprisons lives not behind bars, but also by
reputations. A wrongful arrest has to be
expunged, but the record is permanent.
We have to teach our children that police officers are under a
tremendous amount of stress and strain, and that in cases too many to count,
the accidental killing of an unarmed person is the necessary detriment that
police agencies will not necessarily work to improve on, so for our children,
they need to be on guard and make sure that they always comply with the lawful,
and oft unlawful demands of those who wear badge and gun. Teach our children that the
Criminal Justice system’s perspective of having balanced scales is suspect and
requires calibration that won’t happen anytime soon. Teach our children that the courts speak with
absolute power to those who are poor and who cannot afford an attorney accept
one who can offer then to plead out even when they are innocent. That the same court may offer to someone of
means and opportunity a greater opportunity of freedom, because freedom is very
expensive when it comes to a personal attorney.
Teach our children these important perspectives as it relates to
Criminal Justice, that if anything, make sure that they are financially fit to
face a criminal justice system bent on building a population by hook or crook,
rather than by guilt or innocence.
Healthcare-Despite
the fact that “Obamacare”[7]
proposes to offer healthcare for all Americans, it will come at a price. Our Republican colleagues will stress the tax
implications, and will, as in the case of our own governor of
Politics-One
of the things that we should teach our children about politics is that it is
consistent: Make promises-break
promises. The other thing about politics
that we can teach our children is that politics makes strange bedfellows, which
simply means that even if our elected leaders pledge to fight against someone
whose agenda is against ours, we should not be surprised when our elected
official joins in partnership with that opposing politician. It is important to teach our children as
quickly as possible that politics affects them everyday and in everyway. We need to teach our children that politics
affects not only the fact that they were born, but even if they are
aborted. Teach our children that
politics affects not only that they get educated, but also where they get
educated, who educates them, and what they get educated on. We need to not leave our children in the dark
when it comes to politicians who write laws that they exempt themselves from.[12] That politicians often are allowed to forget
that they work for us, and that if ever we remind them, that they will pull
rank on their constituents by pulling funding, cutting jobs, and other benefits
to remind us that we got it twisted about whose in control. More than anything, we may actually encourage
our children to be politicians so that they live a life puts them in the
driver’s seat and allows them to make promises that they don’t have to keep,
and only cater to their constituents when it comes time to run for
election. Whatever we teach our
children, please leave a little room to stress that we are painting with a
broad brush all politicians because it is easier to focus on those whose
reputations give being a politician a negative reputation. The change of that perception, as we will
teach our children, relies on those politicians who are willing to change that
image, not that of the citizens.
Economics-Will
we need to be economists to teach our children about the economics that they
will be subjected to? I don’t think so,
but let me make sure that I state my disclaimer that I am not an economist,
CPA, attorney, medical professional, or a member of the clergy, and that all
information here is deemed to be from reliable sources but not guaranteed. We can only teach our children so much when
it comes to the economy. We can prepare
our children to learn all that they can in order to be the best employee or
business owner that they can be. But if
we don’t emphasize to our children that the economy is subject to change,
without notice, our children may find themselves in an unemployment line,
homeless, loosing their businesses, or having lost all of their
investments. We can’t afford to allow
our children to become adults without emphasizing to them to save their money
by investing in as many long terms stocks or metals, commodities or what have
you as history suggests. Yes, we can
remind them of the Stock Market crashes of 1987 and 1929[13],
but we should always focus on the positive.
We may not know exactly what our children should invest in, but we
should be at least directing them to consult with the most reliable
professionals possible to purchase insurance or to protect their financial
welfare, so that they don’t find themselves homeless, broke and penniless.
Conclusion
We are always going to be
concerned about our children’s welfare.
We are always going to try to teach them right from wrong. But this is a new and more aggressive
world. It is a world that is prepared to
take our children and chew them up and spit them out, at birth, perhaps while
the placenta may still be attached. From
the moment they are born, we have to put our parental jeans in overdrive to
ensure that our children are on the super highway of life. If it was only the internet that we had to
make sure that our children were up to speed on, we might not have as much to
worry about. But right and wrong is
truly the least of our worries. We maybe
able to integrate a little right or wrong along the way, but the world that our
children is coming into is ready to disavow any association with a child who
expects to be treated nicely because they were nice first.
For our children going forward,
The Golden Rule will only get an honorable mention if it becomes a weapon that
our children use offensively, if not maliciously while mastering testing and
gaining a birth in a school for the gifted.
The Golden Rule will be a footnote in our children’s success unless we
work overtime to make sure that they don’t get caught off guard academically,
politically, through healthcare protection, the economy or through the
turnstile of our Criminal Justice System.
Unless we stop focusing on teaching our children to be nice in a world
that has decided that our children aren’t worthy of being respected or treated
with dignity, our children are going to pay a horrible price if all we are
teaching them is to follow the Golden Rule.
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[1]“The Golden
Rule”: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A12&version=NIV
[2] http://biblehub.com/proverbs/22-6.htm
[4] Einstein’s
Theory of Relativity-http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/einstein.html
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act
[6] http://www.ehow.com/about_7518669_happens-student-loans-die.html
[7] Obamacare-
http://obamacarefacts.com/
[12]
Congress exempts itself from laws- http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-28259514.html
[13] http://www.ehow.com/facts_5028704_stock-market-crash-history.html
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