No one disputes that education is perhaps the most important key to success in life. It does give us tools to make sound decisions and to access better opportunities. As parents our goal, and our challenge, is to provide our children with the best tools to live a fulfilling and successful life. Our best way to provide them with these tools is to give them a solid education.
Many times education is mistaken by instruction. To give a child information and knowledge may be to instruct a child, not necessarily to educate him in the broadest sense of the word. Education is, or should be, a much more comprehensive concept. It should include not only knowledge, but also reasoning, judgment, a moral framework. It is with this complete set of tools that we are best prepared to live a complete life.
Of course, many of the base blocks behind a comprehensive education are given at a very young age. The parents, and a nurturing home environment, are crucial to this learning process. From the moment a baby is born his mind begins to absorb all kinds of information, some of it through a conventional teaching process of presenting information, most times, particularly in the very early development stages, through observation, perception and imitation. The process of discovery that a child embarks on from a very young age is done through playing and interacting with others and with his environment. Countless studies have concluded that as much as eighty percent of some fundamental concepts that will accompany us through the rest of our lives are etched in our minds before age six. The importance of the right exposure to positive, self-assuring experiences can’t be overemphasized. Providing a good framework and a healthy self concept is invaluable.
What to do as parents to hand these tools to our children?
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