Many blame education for the problems that arise between parents and the millennial children
TERUEL, SPAIN: Nowadays, many blame education for the problems that arise between parents and the millennial children. The argument implies that the modern-day education has perhaps taught the young a lot but certainly not the manners and the ethical obligations they have towards their elders. A mother would complain that her son does not obey her, would answer back, and would insult her until she could no longer handle it.
What can or has already gone wrong with the modern- day education? On many occasions, those who are at fault and give up are the parents themselves by ignoring their children, thinking that they are not trained, and believing that as parents they know what they are doing and have done enough already.
We can consider education to be a process towards personal development, as well as a process towards the responsibility of free individuals, since liberty and its corresponding responsibility should always be promoted.
Authority is not just power, but most of all a service. It is a service for the development of liberty in human beings that become more and more autonomous and responsible with their own projects of reaching their fullest potential possible and overcoming personal and environmental limitations.
Furthermore, the development of personal liberty is a process that could be accelerated by education. By educating the young over the liberty that education brings, one can foster more autonomy and responsibility in who is being educated. Is there any contradiction between authority and liberty? No, on the contrary, they mutually need each other. A contradiction among the two concepts would imply a false idea of authority implicitly understood as power, or a false idea of liberty understood as founding radical indetermination.
Arturo Ramo
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2018.
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