429 Words
As Aristotle once said: ' Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these give only life, those the art of living well.' It is true that parents have a hard time giving birth, affording necessities and accompanying their children until they grow up. Parents do not necessarily prove the best teachers for them, though.
Parents, too often bogged down in the dilemma of juggling working around the clock to support their family with supporting their parents, find it hard to make time for teaching their children. After a whole day's work and tiring journeys to and from work for some, they don't even have the strength to cook home-made food. For most parents, educating their children sounds more like leisure than a must. Despite the deep-rooted value of teaching their children as one of their major responsibilities apart from nurturing them, parents' spare time doesn't match their aspiration.
Unfortunately, disqualification emerges as another problem even when parents manage to shoulder the responsibility by "squeezing" time. With ever-advancing technologies leading both to improved efficiency and to increased life complexity, it requires knowledge and experience in more-than-ever diversified disciplines, and in deeper and more practical terms, to deliver better results in more working tasks, to enjoy more entertainment, to communicate more with friends without jeopardizing other aspects of their personal life, in order to survive today's fast pace. It is required to keep learning especially emerging fields to adapt to changes. Admittedly working can be great learning experience. But it tends to narrow it down to a small sector of a specific industry, contributing far from enough to imparting the universe, the human society and their children's inner selves. As children grow, the inadequacy will increasingly expose the weakness of their parents being their teachers.
Without any doubt, as the longest company and the most intimate ones at some stages of children's lifetime, parents have every potential to be the most suitable life mentors for them, as many would argue. But in most cases, lack of time and qualification impedes teaching children in the best way possible. Rather, children's teachers, friends and the Internet don't suffer from these problems in becoming the best teachers. Teachers’ educatedness and educating professionalism, friends’ influential “peer pressure”, Internet’s rich resources and rapid development all overshadow parents’ such potential. We should not forget Ralph Waldo Emerson's words: ' In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.'
In conclusion, parents are not necessarily best teachers for their children. |