This ‘breed’ of children comes from our homes

THE EDITOR: Please allow me to express my views on the turn of events taking place in our country today. As a parent (single) I make an extra effort to teach my children what is right from wrong. They need to be taught this from their tender age. I find it to be solely my responsibility and not any one else’s. In my days of going to school (secondary) the most offensive “crime” was wearing the wrong colour shoes, breaking classes or not being punctual. Never was there such nonsense as beating the teacher, guns and knives as it is today! Why have we allowed the situation to get so out of control as parents? Our children have taken such an unbelievable path that it leaves us speechless. But if we would back track a little to the times when instead of talking and teaching our children basic training and manners, we said to ourselves “they will learn when they go to school!” We replaced these times by an important career opportunity, tickets to a concert (not gospel), the famous second parent, cable, or by the reason that he or she is my only child, “the golden egg,” let them do what they want. What a real pity! What do our young ones profit from these things? Will any of them build their character in a positive way?

I firmly believe that children are influenced by what they are exposed to, what they see and are taught. That is what they take straight into their adulthood. And their characteristics evolve on ‘acting out’ what they saw as children. We sit and take a ‘puff,’ smoke a ‘joint,’ make a ‘small thief,’ curse in the presence of our children. And now with eyes and mouth wide open we wonder to ourselves ‘Where this breed of children comes from? They come from our homes!  “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he would not depart from it” — Proverb 22:6. This is the best crime prevention plan anyone can introduce. After all our children are ‘the future.’ We cannot totally rely on teachers or the services of National Security to work over time. To deploy 1000 extra police to eradicate or at least try to, all these bad seeds we have released into society is acting too late. Yes, they do have an obligation to protect and to serve. But we have the ultimate responsibility, ie to train and teach what we want our young ones to contribute to society. Gone are the days when the whole family attended church and prayed together. Now the common sight is only children going to Sunday School, if so much. Saying ‘good morning,’ ‘thank you,’ ‘you are welcome,’ ‘hello’ etc are rarely heard from our youths by the elderly. Anybody could ‘make a baby’ but it takes parents to nurture that child. Instead of pointing the finger around, instead of saying what you want what others and Government officials to do about the crime wave hitting our land, put in your contribution today! Let’s start at home, as parents. If every home adopts this mentality we will really have the best solution.

MB
Tacarigua