By Victor Ochieng’
vochieng.90@gmail.com
This has been the tempting term for secondary schools. In fact, teachers let a sigh of relief when they released students for the brief break. When learners left the school compound, most school arrowheads said in substance: Good riddance! We are out of the woods.
Some schools were sick and tired of containing learners displaying aberrant behaviour. For some mutated to arsonists and set schools ablaze. They fanned ferocious flames of fire and caused wanton damages.
Students are to blame because of high rate of indiscipline, failure to embrace dialogue, clamour for entertainment, desire for instant gratification, drug abuse, et cetera.
Pundits have also attributed these unrests to leadership lapse, reduced co-curricular activities, intense academic pressure, infirm departments of guidance and counselling, lack of eternal vigilance in schools and poor parenting.
Now, children are getting back home to break from the rigmarole of tight school programmes. This could be the reason why mandarins at the Ministry of Education came up with the recess: to silence the spate of strikes. So, after this hiatus, we expect things to be hunky-dory. That is why every parent should make wise use of these few days. Having quality time with children, is one way to show affection cited in the 5 Love Languages by Garry Chapman.
To tame the wild behaviour among teens, it behooves every parent to have a candid conversation with their children. Parents should swing swiftly to action. Play their part with clock-like precision. Parent their children with purpose. Create quality time to bond with the children. Cherish children, compel children, counsel children and chide children.
Parents should not throw caution to the winds and contract a disease called TB – Too Busy. Remote Parenting is not the way to go. Deliberate and intentional parenting is the best option. Parents who want to win the war should remain hands-on. Children are not left to grow like trees. They are brought up.
Parents should pick the ball from where teachers have dropped it. For Seneca put it aptly “A teacher is a second parent, and a parent is a second teacher.” No parent should abdicate parental responsibility.
It takes God, parents and teachers; to raise a child who can attain a jig-saw fit in the society. This concerted collaborative effort is perfectly brought out in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 where Apostle Paul of Tarsus pens, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters are anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”
Every parent should be responsible. The word ‘responsible’ can be broken down into ‘response’ plus ‘able.’ Most parents are able, but some fail and fall flat to respond to critical issues.
Moreover, parents should focus on the 4 Ps: Prioritise their children. Provide for their children. Protect their children. Pray for their children. The other 2 Ps are – Performance and Potential. Parents should track academic performance of their children. They should also be concerned about their talents, gifts and skills. Over and above, they should introduce them to God; the way Lois (grandma) and Eunice (mother) did to Timothy.
Parents should check forms of entertainment that their children expose themselves to while holed up at home. In fact, they should encourage them to be prone to edutainment – forms of entertainment that are educative.
Movies and music must be rife with useful life values. Parents should help their progenies to understand that their mortal minds obey the GIGO Principle – Garbage in; Garbage out. Input equals output.
If children spend all their time watching Kiss TV, Maria, Zora, Soap Operas, DJ Afro; as they remain allergic to books, when they report back to school, they will see schools as prisons.
Therefore, wise parents should always sit down with their children, and carefully craft daily timetables that focus on three things: study time, home chores and leisure.
Like Sonya Carson did to her son Ben Carson, every parent should encourage the child to love books. For books are not just pieces of papers put together, but living ideas that can change lives.
There is this book titled the Jewish Phenomenon by Steven Silbiger. It talks about the 7 Keys to Enduring Wealth of Jews. This beautiful book posits why Jews in America are wise and wealthy. The awesome author postulates that Jews understand that real wealth is portable: It is knowledge. At a fledgling age, Jewish children are trained to appreciate the winsome wonder of the written word.
Jews meticulously study the Tora, Talmud and Mishna. Talmud enshrines books of detailed rabbinical commentary on the Bible. Tora is the collection of the first five books of the Old Testament. The Mishna houses books codifying the Jewish laws for prayers, religious observance, and everyday living.
In the Jewish religion, children are recognised in the synagogue as adults at the age of 15. Jewish parents encourage their children to value literate habits, hobbies, rituals and routines. Parents ensure that their children watch news and read newspapers with zeal and zest. Jews encourage their children to stand out of the crowd. Walk heads held high. They are admonished never to live under the shadow of anyone else.
A classic case is Albert Einstein – a top-flight physicist. At age 26, he became the creator of the Law of Relativity that ushered in the Atomic Age. During his adulthood, reminiscing his childhood, he realised he had read popular Science books.
Finally, parents should treasure children because they are good gifts from God. Psalms 127:3-5 says: “Lo, children are a heritage from the Lord, and fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man are children of the youth. Happy is the man whose quiver is full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”
The writer is an orator, editor and author.
