Thanks to the
disputable administration of my child's current school, my goals for educating
my children have changed. It used to be finding a good school and delegating
the responsibility of educating my children to them. Now it's about finding a school that can help me act
on the responsibility that is solely mine.
How can I say that I
have been a good parent if the school I choose intentionally excludes the
parent as part of the learning process? Is it not the main responsibility of a
parent is to raise these youngsters and education especially in terms of
academics is only a mere part of acting on that responsibility? And yet, the
school is taking over most of their waking hours, bombarding them with facts
then they call it education.
I've come to realize
that parents' view of what they want their children to be become skewed once
they enter the four walls of the school. It now becomes an unending race to
achieve a somewhat deceitful goal, to be placed in a rank among honors, to be a
valedictorian, to be attain the most number of medals, to win in the most
prestigious national competition. What happened to the simple goal of raising
your children to become a good person? To raise them in a way most pleasing to
God so that when they grow up they may be able to glorify God through the
things that they do?
I've heard of
stories of parents menacing other people just so their children may achieve
that deceitful goal. Others even resulted in physical violence that is simply
contradictory to the supposedly ultimate goal. Have we as parents forgotten why
we are blessed to have offsprings of our own? Have we forgotten what is
important when the end of our time has
come? Do we want our children to value these pretentious things than be ready
to face our creator?
I am scared of what
I might become if I continue to travel this path. I've been that parent who
meticulously goes over every test item to check for corrections. I confess to
being frustrated when I force my child to study. I find myself in the faculty
room questioning my child's grades. I stepped back and realize the horror that
I've become. Is this what I want? Is this what I want for my children?
"I only have
one shot at parenting and I want to do it right." I've heard this from
someone and it almost brought me to tears. My heart is shouting the very same
thing. I have to keep check my goals for parenting. Academic education is just
a part of it and should not be the main focus. Now my aim is to educate my
children about how to live their lives. A life that is God-centered,
God-fearing, God-glorifying. Yes, I still want them to be good in Math,
Science,etc but not because I want them to bag the highest honors, but because
I want them to maximize whatever talent or gift God has given them.
