Educate Parents, Not Kids

While I am aging, I do not consider myself aged, i.e., elderly.

I do, however, remember "way back then" when I was the beneficiary of a Catholic parochial grammar school education, followed by (Hawthorne) junior high school in Yonkers, N.Y., high school in Norwalk (NHS Class of '54) and college (New York University '64.)

I bore you with all this merely to let you know whence I come -- because I am anticipating your reaction will be something in the nature of, "Where in blazes did he go to school?"

Before we entered the "modern" age, it was not uncommon to differentiate between education and job training and propaganda. Today, it seems, people (and specifically educators and government officials) consider these three things to be all the same.

Thus, we do not study history or geography so we can qualify for a better job with General Motors, IBM, Perkin-Elmer or Trans-Lux. And, though they unquestionably are helpful, we do not study English, mathematics, sociology with idea that a potential employer would find us better qualified because of the knowledge imparted by these studies.

No! If we had wanted job training we would have saved the thousands of dollars spent on trying to become educated. As to propaganda, well, that's another story.

Attention: We interrupt this column to issue the following warning:

This state, among others, is in danger of destroying what's left of the distinction between education, propaganda and training!

The state Board of Education is preparing to release its "updated" and "more comprehensive" AIDS curriculum designed to educate students about the virus. All this is in the same vein as those school systems, such as New Haven, where condoms are made available to students.

State law requires school districts to devote 20 classroom hours a year to teaching about drugs, alcohol and AIDS.

Lest you get the wrong impression, I'm not necessarily opposed to making AIDS, alcohol or drug information available to people who could benefit from it. What I am saying here is that the school system -- no matter how convenient it may be for bureaucrats -- is not the place to do it!

Part of the reason that our students have problems with AIDS, alcohol and drugs is the fact that (forgive the upcoming infringement on a sacred cow) our youngsters spend too much, not too little, time in school -- time that should be spent with the family.

After all, do we not all agree that parents -- not the schools -- are responsible for the upbringing of our children?

Schools are not the place to teach (or, more correctly, propagandize) about the dangers of AIDS, drugs and alcohol; this bypasses parents, who have the ultimate responsibility for the morals and ethical welfare of their children.

If you really wanted to educate, not indoctrinate, the children you would provide the necessary information to the parents so that they would be better equipped to deal with these problems, and teach their offspring the rights, the wrongs and the wisdom of protecting themselves against AIDS, drugs and alcohol abuse.

Wouldn't it be wiser to educate our children so that they are better prepared -- not for a job -- for the rigors of life?

I wrote this column as a "My View" for The Hour newspaper of Norwalk, Conn., on Aug. 27, 1994.