Any system of education which does not inculcate moral values simply furnishes the intellectual equipment whereby men and women can better satisfy their pride, greed and lust.
—Hyman Rickover
It’s true, we want them to go to great schools. We want them to learn as much as possible. This is why we monitor their grades. This is why parents are concerned about changes in curriculum, why they save and invest in order to pay for college.
But are we really focused on the right things? This isn’t just to make the tried-and-true point that education must give our kids actual job skills they can use out in the world. It’s also to question whether our kids are being taught how to be good people—at home, in the classroom, and out in the world.
Plenty of children go to expensive private schools or make it to the Ivy League. Yet they end up being corrupt politicians or soulless businesspeople who devastate industries. Plenty of children learn how to succeed but are deprived of the skills and the decency necessary to manage this success ethically and responsibly.
The purpose of education is not to make your kids more selfish, more greedy, more convinced of their own ideas or superiority. No, it’s to make them better citizens, better human beings, and hopefully, someday, better parents themselves.