Just yesterday, I was in a conversation with one of my friends. This gentleman is on the other side of 40 and seems to be doing okay. Our conversation was mainly about upbringing of children and the influences that make a person who they are. He said something that got me thinking.
“So many parents forget that they went to some run down school in the village and they have made it.”
He made this comment after we noted that many prominent Ugandans seem to be shunning our local schools in favour of International schools both here and abroad. Apparently these international schools teach some things that our local schools just cannot teach. They allow the child’s mind to grow in a more liberal way. They make the child think beyond his limitations. That is the mambo jumbo I tend to hear.
But my friend capped off his strange observations about these international schools by saying that many times you will not like the outcome. You will send your child there with a big dream of the child coming out as a future leader of men…coming out as a visionary of the world, someone who will take your mistakes, learn from them and build on the legacy that you will leave behind for them.
But alas! More often than not, your child might come out of that international school with a guitar in hand, a smoke in his mouth and a different world view than what you expected. In truth you will feel shocked but there is one thing you will find that you missed, and you have no answer to what this thing might be.
Now do not get me wrong. I have nothing against these amazing schools that can rival many universities here in Uganda for size. There was a time I actually would have killed to have sent my child (when I do get one) to an International school. It was my belief that students who went to International Schools were well-rounded characters. Their thought process was a lot different from us who went to our traditional schools.
But that was a few years ago. It took a simple and yet interesting conversation with one of my mentors to get me to see things differently.
What my mentor and this friend of mine told me was that children are not fully defined by their schools. Children who will become adults are a reflection of their parents and guardians. If you see a thief, just know that he or she was raised by a non-caring guardian. Anyway, children and in the end adults, are who they are because of the impact of their parents.
In my opinion, and maybe the opinion of others, a child is 60% what they see and learn at home, 20% what they learn at school and the last 20% the community. So there are many things that make the child the person they are, but the most important thing is the fact that the parent and home have the biggest role to play in raising a child in this world of today.
You might take your child to the so-called International schools. You might take them to the place where you believe they will receive the best education, but at the end of the day, if the values you have taught them mean nothing and do nothing for them, then the opportunity you will think you would have provided will go to waste.
Charity begins at home.
So if you prefer to send your kid to an international school with the fundamental difference in teaching…go right ahead. No one will hold it against you. It is your choice. But remember that your child will always be your legacy. Make sure to teach them the true values that you want them to have for the rest of their lives.
Tales of the Thoughtless MIND 