Give the communists credit. They have succeeded in creating confusion over just who are the primary educators of children.
Modern culture these days almost demands that all parents be working full-time jobs. This leaves no one home to care for and to educate the children. Instead, the children are shuttled off to day care and to school.
Sometimes this is unavoidable, especially for single-parent households. But it should not be the default for every household, as it seems to be.
JUST WHO OUGHT TO BE THE PRIMARY EDUCATORS OF YOUR CHILDREN?
“Since they have conferred life on their children, parents have the original, primary and inalienable right to educate them; hence they must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children,” states emphatically the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family.
“Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2223, emphasis added).
We can see this truth by just using simple reasoning. By our human nature, the biological parents assume the utmost responsibility for raising their offspring. Since they carry this duty, they are allotted the say-so in how their children are brought up.
The parental duty extends beyond just providing for the physical needs of children. Each parent must take seriously the duty to form their children well in moral living and spiritual formation (CCC 2221, emphasis added).
TOO MANY PARENTS ARE DERELICT IN THEIR DUTIES TO THEIR CHILDREN
Sadly, too many parents rarely spend time with their children. Let’s not even ask how few take their kids to church.
The television set serves as the babysitter. The music gets unfiltered, as they grow older. The internet usage goes unmonitored and is not rationed. The cell phone becomes a false god to young boys and girls.
In too many families, children rarely get to spend any time talking to their fathers, especially. Instead, media consumption every waking hour consumes the children.
Moderation of media usage within the family is strongly suggested by the Catechism (2496), and by common sense.
The Catechism states, “The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies” (2224).
I think the general smut you find on the majority of television these days qualifies as ‘compromising and degrading influences.’ Same goes for pop music, pop magazines, and pop culture at large.
Those in the media become the ones the vast majority of children and teens monitor. They learn their values from their music, MTV, and the biased mass media. Mom and dad’s views, if they even differ, get drowned out.
Sadly, too many folks take the easy way out. They leave the job of instructing their children to the state.
The vast majority of our society has bought into the lie that both parents must work, in order to have a happy household. And while nearly everyone buys into that, the state graciously steps in to your shoes.
FACE IT, YOU CAN’T GIVE WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE
As the primary educators of their children, parents also assume some other obligations. Namely, parents must “educate [children] in the right use of their reason and freedom” (2228).
Did you catch that?
As a parent, you are to instruct your children to reason correctly.
Sadly, too many folks take the easy way out. They leave the job of instructing their children to the state.
The vast majority of our society has bought into the lie that both parents must work, in order to have a happy household. And while nearly everyone buys into that, the state graciously steps in to your shoes.
The state gladly assumes control of being the principal educator of your children… Sound principles are not likely, then, to be conveyed to your impressionable sons and daughters.
As I said at the top, I realize many households are forced to send their children out of the home for schooling. If that includes you, know that you have a fundamental right, as the parent, to choose the best school for your child (2229). Choose wisely!
IN CLOSING
“‘The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.’ The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable,” explains Catechism 2221 (emphasis added).
How many parents even know this? How many fewer even take this duty as the primary educators seriously?
If you want to know why our society is falling apart, count this as a chief reason. Too few parents are willing to take responsibility for being the primary educators of their own flesh and blood.
YOUR TURN
I would like to hear from my dear readers on this one.
Were you aware of your “primordial and inalienable” duty to be the primary educators of your children?
What can we do to help more parents assume this responsibility?
This or anything else, you are welcome to sound off on below!
