To Teach or Not to Teach..........

That is the question!

I've read where some say that we shouldn't teach our children about 'current events'!
I personally couldn't disagree more.

I have six children, as many of you know and the oldest is 16 and 1/2 (he would want me to be sure to include that 1/2!). I have always used current events to 'teach' my children. I have found it fun and very profitable!

I can teach them about other's silly thinking without appearing to gossip, for one!
You know, "What was wrong with that statement?" Those kinds of questions! You
can't say that about their aunt! :-)

And I often do this! --Nearly daily!

With the recent election, I was able to teach them more about how government was supposed to be run, than I have ever been able to before! We've been able to look at some historical documents and statements and see what the Founding Fathers meant to happen. Then we've been able to learn what current injustices were being passed like popcorn!Boom! Pop! Pow! Bam!
:-)

Now, that said, I want to remind you that what you don't teach them--- the world will!!!!! It will be taught by television(haven't you seen the commercials on the kid's channels lately?), movies, radio, books, news, magazines, etc. They will be approached by people in their colleges, working environments, in McDonald's even! And those people will try, mostly through ignorant and uneducated comments, to sway your children's thinking.

In the past year, here's some things that MY family has been exposed to:
to me: "You don't really believe that do you? Come on!" (as though I would succumb to their insults and belittling)
to my children: "Okay, but you know the earth may not make it much longer."
to my children: "Well they're teaching us in school that Global Warming IS real."
to my children: "You better eat while you can, because the climate is about to change and the earth is going to lose like 2/3 of it's food production." (honestly!)
to my husband: "That guy got mad at me 'cuz o' my opinion. I just told him that Sarah Palin was a *?#@*!!" (by a cashier at the gas station)
to me: "Vote Democratic! Be part of the solution!" (in the grocery store by the cashier!)

So, to teach current events is 100% necessary to me in this current day! I don't want them being told what to think by the world...but I want them being taught TO THINK by me! :-)

**And mothers, remember this verse: Prov 29:15 .....but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

Don't leave your child to 'himself' on these issues and don't wait on anyone else to do it!

-just my opinion-