teaching

 Seldom do the things we learn change what we were taught. And I am concerned with what we are teaching our children today. It seems to me we are abandoning the things we were taught in favor of something else, something selfish. As we teach our children that life itself is a choice and any choice you make is the correct one, for you. I am concerned with that, the removal of standards, of expectations and responsibility. Just what is the lesson? That is what I worry about. Just what are we teaching? 

 All new knowledge, new learning,  has to pass through the filter of what we have already been taught. Some will maintain a very fine filter while others are more open. Those items caught in the filter will form our character. It is a delicate balance, no doubt about it. Like all filters it can stifle the flow as well as cleanse the medium passing through it.  The challenge has always been to establish the proper balance, What is that filter being made of today? I'd say it was an awfully coarse filter, allowing all manner of debris through. It is that debris that will be passed to the next generation. And that is the paradox in this. We recognize what is good and bad and filter out what we think is bad, clinging to the good. Then having done that we tend to pass the bad to the next generation who then adopt that as good. We sometimes call that progress. Well the ones adopting it call it that anyway. Those of us that have allowed that stuff to pass will deny it altogether. 

 The purpose of a filter is to maintain the pureness of the medium passing through it. Just what are we passing through the filter? Values, that is what we are teaching. The essence of man is his values. What are the things we value the most? Are they what pleases us, or what those values add to the society in which we live? When the founding fathers composed the declaration of independence isn't that what they were declaring? They declared what they felt was the best choice for everyone. The very reason they choose the words they did. They listed the reasons for that choice. Most of us have never fully read that list of grievances, we have focused only on the declaration. " That these united colonies are, and of Right ought to be free and independent states " The grievances listed are what we wanted filtered out. Now many of those grievances are being returned by the very government that wanted them abolished by that declaration. 

 I grow concerned when I see the lessons being taught. You don't have to Pledge Allegiance to the flag if you don't want to, you don't have to show respect for that. Responsibility lies with government, not the individual. Your only responsibility is to yourself, all others take a back seat. We call it self worth and talk about how important that is. We should feel good about ourselves. The way to do that is to please ourselves, is the lesson being taught today. We shouldn't tell anyone else what they can or can not do. In that way we can justify our own choices. Allowing others, allows ourselves, doesn't it? The removal of the filter.

 I don't know I'm just thinking about all of that. The thought came to me that, seldom do the things we learn change what we were taught. I started trying to find a way to express that. We are taught our core values as children. I don't believe many of us abandon those values later in life. We may test them, compare them against others' values, but in the end we seldom change our core values. The thing is, those values do have to be established in the first place. How are they established then? By discipline. That's how they are established. We tend to think of discipline as strictly punishment for wrongdoing. Discipline is actually just training someone to act in the proper fashion. To obey rules or observe a code of conduct. That's discipline. Yeah, punishment is the method of correction. In the Christian tradition that punishment is eternal! The concept is the same, to teach the proper code, to instruct. But what happens when we teach there is no consequence? What happens without discipline. Without self restraint? Without sacrifice? Just what are we teaching?