Parenting
Being a parent is probably the most rewarding, and at the same time, the most frustrating experience that a human being can have.
We all want the absolute best for our children. We want to make sure that they are prepared to go out into the world and succeed. We want to watch as they mature, get married and have grandchildren.
We want to make sure that they get the education that they need to survive in this rapid changing world of ours. We want to make sure they have the financial knowledge that will carry them into retirement.
But are you giving them the tools to survive the storm?
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Are you depending on 'the system' to make sure they are prepared? |
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When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. ~Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874 |
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Over the last forty years, it seems that the educational system in this country have turned itself on its head. Bit by bit, too many of us have allowed the school systems to take over the responsibilities of parenting.
We have allowed the institutions around us to dictate the new moral codes instead of teaching them at home. Nor have we paid attention to what our children are being taught. Too many of us believe that as long as our children get good grades, they are learning what they need to know when they go out on their own.
And although they have learned reading, writing and 'arithmetic, have you checked to see whether they have learned the things they need to know to survive in the Real World? |
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| It is hard to convince a high-school student that he will encounter a lot of problems more difficult than those of algebra and geometry. ~Edgar W. Howe |
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Now, I may be biased, but I believe we live in the greatest country to ever be conceived in human history. We have shown the world how to prosper by using the free market system of business and the social freedoms to pursue them. Unfortunately, we are rapidly losing the principles that made us great. Because the Free Enterprise system is no longer being taught to our children !!
Our children are being taught that the planet and polar bears are dying. They are being taught that you shouldn't have to stand up to the bully, but that the state is responsible for taking care of the bully for them. Etc, etc.
Regardless of your opinion on these types of issues, the bottom line is that they are not being taught the business and financial skills necessary to make sure they can take care of themselves when they leave the nest. Otherwise, why are so many 30-year-olds moving back in with mom and dad?
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| Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves. ~Virginia Satir, The New Peoplemaking, 1988 |
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Nor can we depend on our colleges and universities to produce the next generations of entrepreneurs. I've talked to a lot of graduates with business degrees that may know a lot about climbing the corporate ladder, but don't have a clue how to get down in the trenches and start a business from scratch without venture capital.
I've talked to parents who told me that know this is not important because their children have no interest in building a business or entering management. I ask them this: "If an employer is cutting their staff, would he keep the person that knows how his business works and can help him build it or the person that is just there for a paycheck?"
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| Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own. ~Logan Pearsall Smith, "Age and Death," Afterthoughts, 1931 |
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So let's return to the initial question again:
Are you giving them the tools to survive the storm?
or
Are you depending on 'the system' to make sure they are prepared?
We can't help you keep your children safe. We can't help help you provide their basic needs. We can't teach your children good morals and values. Nor can we provide them with effective and appropriate discipline. Only parents can properly do those things. Not the government. Not the schools, Not the lawyers. YOU, the parent.
What we CAN do is help give your children the part of the education they are probably not getting in school and often at home because the parents do not know how to pass this knowledge to them. The FireStar Institute is dedicated to providing every individual in this country the knowledge to:
By now you should have guessed that the greatest gift you can give your children (that will last them a lifetime) is the knowledge and skills to take care of themselves and their families no matter what happens in the world. -- Or you just buy them another video game and hope for the best.....
"The person that knows themselves and their abilities is the person that will succeed while others fail."
-- Roger Pearson, Headmaster
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