Education and discipline of children in modern society

By Samuel A. Ogungbemi

“THE unacknowledged wink of our eyes later becomes uncountable number of years,” says a popular proverb. And look! 365 days have just passed, and on May 27, people ecstatically celebrated in different countries of the world yet another wonderful Children’s Day. “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” the Scripture states. The adage “if you fail to plan, you will plan to fail” is also often used regarding the training of children. To put it another way, a country that does not plan, educate, and raise its children and young people from an early age in the proper manner is planning its own destruction. Without question, lack of discipline is causing our children and young people’s lives to become increasingly corrupted, decadent, and degraded on a phenomenal scale. Discipline means keeping an eye on, directing, and teaching children with diligence. According to the Scripture, the current dispensation is characterised by traits such as selfishness, love of money, arrogance, violence, disrespect for or disobedience to parents and elders, wearing of inappropriate attire or nude clothing, encouraging immoral behaviour, a lack of self-control, a lack of enthusiasm for hard work, and a preference for pleasure over God. There is thus the need to instill discipline in our children to curb their excesses facilitated by information explosion, consumerism, abundance of freedoms and rights and a decline in parental supervision.

Children of today grow up in a decadent environment where the word of God is taken with levity, resulting in acts of rebellion and blatant resistance to the truth. Nowadays, morality has been abandoned, and everyone (children and young people included) does whatever they want in their perspective, “the result justifies the means.” Children are not excluded from cartoons that have the most appealing characters but with destructive tendencies, and it is the strange and unusual that draws their attention. Our senses are constantly exposed to stories and visuals that are obscene and lacking in any kind of decorum or decency by the mass and social media.

In order to earn a living, parents often neglect their children for extended periods of time, hence parenting is largely done by proxy. Many young children watch television, films, and other media for a larger portion of their productive hours and unfortunately, this is done without proper supervision. Given all of these undesirable conditions, one might wonder how to save these children. In order to save our children in this generation, we should first and foremost pray to have burden to rescue them from this corrupt world, with that parents should also bear in mind that it takes the help of God to train and guide a child in God’s way. Second, we need to be aware of the latest developments in technology and stay up to date in order to guide them appropriately.

Parents should leverage on the benefits of technology to ensure that their children have the appropriate and required skills to be relevant and prepared for the competition in the secular space for job opportunities, especially. Third, parents should refrain from making negative confessions concerning their children. Fourth, parents must not compromise the proper discipline of their children; they must learn to “call a spade a spade” and not mince words when it comes to correction. Every competent parent should not spare the rod of correction to control the activities of their children. The fifth point is that religious activities should not be prohibited in schools. Religious organisations help in instilling moral values that will help the children to function properly in society.  They must collectively build a religious structure and children friendly environment where children would be taught obedience, submission, godliness, contentment and other godly virtues. Sixth, government policies ought to support an atmosphere that is favourable for learning for children and young people. The government should be urged to enact laws and regulations that would support efficient discipline and assist children in developing appropriate coping mechanisms for their emotions. Seven, even if raising children is a specialised sector, everyone should be able to serve as an example for the children to follow. We should love children with our hearts as well as with our words. We ought to make an effort to serve as examples for them. Eight, every household has an obligation to consistently raise, nurture, and instruct its children in the word of God. Nine, it is the duty of parents, teachers, religious leaders, and other stakeholders to ensure that children and youths receive adequate and suitable training from birth through childhood, adolescence, and maturity. Ten, immediate and substantial action is necessary to address the unstable and unfriendly conditions that are negatively impacting the lives of our children and youth today. Without a doubt, raising, developing, and training children is a difficult task that calls for a lot of resources, attention, and spiritual fervour.

In conclusion, God gives us children who are born with enormous potential. To keep them focused, it is crucial to discipline and raise them from an early age. When well-trained children reach adulthood, they will have a noticeable influence. It is not a futile or misdirected attempt to train children. Focused parenting and suitable religious instruction are essential in today’s collapsing society. Therefore, let’s combine our resources and endeavours to help our children follow the road of honesty, diligence, and humility. If we don’t provide our children the necessary education and a healthy dose of discipline, we run the risk of losing the future of our nation. This would actually be a failure to fulfil our obligations to God and to humanity.

•Ogungbemi, a cleric, writes in from Ibadan via samleyegbemi@gmail.com

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