Are Parents best Teachers?
Obviously, the first teachers we have in our lives in most cases are our parents. They teach us to walk, to speak, and to have good manners before we reach the real world. †More than even the professional teachers that we have at school, parents are generally the most involved in the development and education of children.
Almost for sure our parents are the best teachers at the beginning of our lives, which actually corresponds to the parents’ role in nature. Parents are most committed and involved in teaching their children; they have a kind of instinct to sacrifice a part of themselves for the betterment of their children. They love us and have great patience while passing down their knowledge to us. They wish us a success and thus will not teach us bad things. And of course, implicit learning occurs when children unconsciously copy some of their parents’ habits and styles of behavior.
During the second stage of child development, adolescence, parents can still be in the best position to offer advice even though the children might not accept it. In this case, perhaps the child’s friends would be the best teachers. Adolescents are notoriously rebellious in many cultures and may automatically reject any advice from their parents. My first marriage for instance, was solely a matter of doing the opposite when my parents tried to intrude in offering their advice. So in such matters, parents should be much more flexible and be rather the partners with their children. So we can see that being a teacher of growing child become more and more complicated case as the time passes and many parents are simply not able to meet the increased demands.
On the other hand, I would say that parents are not professional teachers and they tend to be very biased by their love of their children. So wishing good things and an easy life may prevent children from maturation. In any case, parents usually can present only one viewpoint of the world, while good teaching should be based on different attitudes. Thus, when children go to school and have a great diversity of teachers, they learn much more than their parents could probably give them. Furthermore, once our parents get older, they become more conservative and cannot always be objective in regard to modern trends and fashions. Thus we need to take their advice with caution during that period. However, some kind of intuition that I believe shared between relatives about what everybody needs and great love that exists in families still makes our parents very good teachers and advisers at any time.
In conclusion, while parents are not the ideal teachers, and well-rounded children will generally need a great diversity of teachers in their lives in order to have a more accurate view of the world, parents are generally the most committed of all teachers and have the greatest emotional investment in their children and their future.
Our entire education system is based on what we accumulate each day of our life. In spite of the fact that school teachers are those who give us lots of information in a variety of fields, our parents are still the best teachers; they start their educational process as soon as we were born and never stop teaching us.
In the initial years of our life, our parents are involved in guiding us, in modulating our personality and making us understand the differences between right and wrong. When I was five, my parents bought me a dog; they taught me how to take care of him, feed him, play with him and bath him. Thus, I learned that we all have responsibilities.
Even if parents are not specialized in education, their role in teaching the children to be aware of the need of improving their knowledge at school is tremendous. Our parents are not supposed to teach us Math, Chemistry or Biology, but they are very much involved in giving us lessons about being independent, strong and confident in ourselves. As my mother said to me, “fight your own battles because I will not be always able to protect you.”
Teenagers have to be informed about all the negative effects that can occur if using drugs, drinking alcohol, or smoking. Regarding this issue, parents have to cooperate with school teachers to make children aware of those possible risks.
I believe that parents are the best teachers because their lessons last forever. My parents are old now. Even when I am a grown up person, I consider that they can still give me very good advices when I need them, based on their life experience. My parents have the most important role in my education during my life and I will always be grateful for everything they have taught me.
Parents are the most committed, the most influential, and almost the best teachers any child can have. The amount of time a child interacts with parents makes them the most influential force in a child’s life. The child gets to learn the most basics of things like walking, speaking and interacting with others. It is under the protections of parents that a child learns to behave in society and to comfort him or herself.
Although parents are the most influential teachers in their children’s life, they may not be regarded as the best teachers. Parents generally provide a biased view of the world; they always favor their child, and thus they cannot provide a complete panoramic view of the society. Also parents may set a bad example for their child by abusing and fighting amongst themselves. Psychologists and recent crime charts have proved that young outlaws generally come from disrespectful families, and have grown up in extreme environments.
A child interacts with many kinds of teachers at schools and colleges. Although these teachers, being professionals, have limited time to devote to a child, they provide a complete and diverse view to their students. They provide unbiased guidance to a child.
During the years of adolescence, children tend to be aggressive and non-conforming to others’ views. So parents need to act like friends rather than teachers. Eventually, it is the parents who provide an environment for a child to develop and mature, and thus have the capacity to be the best teachers to their child. What is important is to provide an unbiased view to their child, to motivate independent thinking and actuate timely maturation.
