Teach your children - by being a role model to them

As if picking up the topic of my last post, (people party's) vice-chancellor Wilhelm Molterer said in an interview that parents should take more responsibility in educating their brood. Though hardly ever agreeing on anything that comes from the conservative-rightsided part of the Austrian political spectrum, this one I can only totally agree with.

Leaving "education" to schools only is irresponsible, stupid, lazy, and harms both the child and society. What you learn in school is formal education - knowledge - but what school cannot teach you is manners, respect, attitude, communication, interacting with other people, and socialization. Non-formal education (a thing I strongly believe in) is not something your teachers may give you. In schools, classes are too big, pupils too diverse in their personal development, and the knowledge part takes too much of precious school time to leave anything for something else.

This goes out to you, parents all over the world: laissez-faire has failed to educate your children, so has TV, Nintendo, the movies, and so will school if you give up all your responsibilities. Don't do this to your children - they will not thank you for ruining their social future, and neither will I, for they will ruin our society with their ignorance.