Preparing the next generation

As Amy and I prepare for the coming adventure of sending our oldest child off in to the world of “big kid school” and the arrival of the latest addition to the family (any day now she keeps telling me) we’ve been talking with more and more Catholic parents and we find ourselves wondering over and over again if we’re just bad parents. The issue at hand, and the one we find we keep coming back to, is the fact that we’ll be trudging up to the bus stop at the front of the neighborhood every day starting in August (or September, whenever they decide to start school) while a good many of our friends from church will be home schooling or sending their offspring to a parochial (catholic) school.

Several of the people we know are going the private school route because they do not want their children to go to public school for one reason (they feel the public schools do not match up) or another (they’re worried about the ‘extra’ stuff their children will learn). A couple of people (one without children) have even expressed the fact that they wouldn’t let their child ride a school bus today. Of course, among our Catholic group of friends, there’s a strong movement for Homeschooling as well for many of the same reasons (plus the fact that its cheaper).

I was driving to work this morning after attending the “orientation” at the public elementary school Grace will be attending next year and I decided that sheltering my children from the world by sending them to a private school or by homeschooling them would most certainly not be the answer. Instead, I’m going to play the part of active or more accurately, proactive, parent.

The “talk” commercials about talking to your kids about drugs, sex, rock and roll(?), have been around forever and are probably some of the best pointers a parent could have (not that I’m an expert by any means, I’ve only been at it for 5.5 years). It seems to me that instead of wrapping our children in a cocoon of bubble wrap or religion or naivety we should be arming our children with the knowledge and tools they need to make smart decisions for themselves. Decisions that cannot be taught in a controlled atmosphere like a private school (though there is something to be said for charter schools) or a home school program.

I’ve found that my five year old is a sponge when it comes to learning. She picks up on things much quicker than her mom or I do at this stage in the game, and its at this point, as we prepare to send her on her educational journey that we need to be taking the time to point out the right thing to do in situations that arise (like picking on a schoolmate or listening to the wrong kind of music). If we do our jobs as parents, the way we are supposed to, our children will be that much better prepared to go out in the world and take care of themselves. Its not a matter of shielding them from music that has a message we do not agree with or keeping them from watching tv shows with questionable content.

There isn’t any way for us to be with them 24 hours a day seven days a week. At some point, the little ones are going to come in contact with something that will test their sense of ethics and moral character and the best we can do is prepare them to the best of our ability. Does the fact that I’m pushing my child out to the wide world make me a bad parent?

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