Who teaches the children, and what do we teach them?

I was reading this article, and I came across a quote by Plato, "Who teaches the children, and what do we teach them?"

I thought about how important that is. Do you ever think about your behavior? Your standards for the way you live your life?

Traditionally speaking, it's our parents who instill in us our values, morals and teach us most everything that we know. But then your parents are not the only people who have access to you as a child. I still remember things various people said or did around me when I was a kid and picking up on my liking their behavior or not, and then trying to emulate the behavior that I liked and avoiding behaving in the way that made me uncomfortable when I saw it.

Just like it is said that it takes a village to raise a child, I'm going to extend that philosophy to more broad terms, applicable to the society in which we live today. Children are sponges, so they pick on up on everything, so anything that influences them, "raises" them. We live in a virtual world that if one plops their child in front of the TV, the people acting on the TV are "raising" the child. Other children at school greatly influence a child. The teachers. This is a powerful one. I remember thinking, or being conditioned to think, that the teacher knew everything and we were to respect him or her accordingly. Similarly, coaches, music instructors, etc.

But then what worries me is, do people care? I mean, do people care who raises their child. I think it would be cruel to think that there exist people who don't care about the well being of their child, but maybe it's not that, maybe it's that people are unaware of the importance of the early years of a child's development and just how detrimental they are to the final product, that is, an adult. And I guess it doesn't matter how you behave if you live in a society of one, but by definition, a society is social; a group of people coexisting together, and I think it'd be safe to say for people to do that successfully, there needs to be certain behavior that is conducive to a functional society. Well what's a functional society? I'll leave that for another day, I have a final exam in less than an hour.

lots of love.