The recent school unrests in Kenya have drawn mixed reactions from different quarters. The Cabinet Secretary has been blamed for putting in stringent school rules in abid to reform school processes,operations and management.
But the barbaric, insensitive and immoral acts by students to burn schools is a reflection of the vices within the society.But most significantly to note is that parents have neglected and abdicated their roles to the teachers and maids.
Given the nature of 'hustling' today,are the millennial parents failing in their parental roles? Compared to our parents, today's parents are a completely different in the way they nurture and raise their kids.
Millennial parents are focused in fulfilling their societal pressures and left the role of parenting to the teachers and their maids back at home.For them it is about the next fashion,the next job, the next gig.Somehow the kids will just grow and adopt to the environment, they say.
Their environment is defined by modernism,relativism and individualism. When I was growing up, disciplining a child was collective responsibility from the community. Today, dare you touch a neighbour's child and you will see the kind of suits that will follow you.
Those days you would be found doing something wrong and a neighbour would cane your butt soar and by the time your mother or dad gets to you depending with who is the 'harsh one', you would start praying for your death. In fact most mothers operated like FBIs and CIAs, they knew you had already done a mistake before you even started creating those funny alibi of yours.You could not lie to them. And the punishment was not a joke. If it was in the evening and you came back late from playing football and gallivanting around the estate/village, you would take a beating then take a cold shower but she would ensure you were well fed before taking the strokes.
Most of the parents believed in reading rather than watching TV. Watching TV was a luxury and since I grew up in that era when TV was switched on at 4pm and you wait for the National Anthem to kick off the programming as you take some hot porridge that you never liked.
During those days, there was some form of regulation and order. Each house had a system of its own government.And going against that government would mean you have started becoming a rebel and you'd be subjected to some sort of accountability. Reports would reach your uncles and aunties. It was not funny because they would give you some serious lectures and if it was necessary a beating would be instituted.
This made you conscious of your behaviour while growing up and knowing that you are accountable to your immediate family, the community and the society at large.
We have abandoned our culture that was rich of values,order,regulation and adopted modernism which partly has had a great negative impact to our society. Advancing in our cultural ways to align to globalization and modern society does not mean we forget the good ways that made the world so hospitable in the later years.
Today the world is full of conflicts. From war to teenage pregnancies. The world is in chaos.The fabric of morality is torn completely. A year ago, the President of United States of America,Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama began a campaign to show Americans the need to have functional families in order to instill values to their kids.
Most youths in America had become uncontrollable and getting involved in gang-related cases,drugs,teenage pregnancies and dropping out of schools.And this was as a result of dysfunctional families.
It is therefore evident that if we want to deal with the unrest and waywardness in schools, we have to go back home and deal with the issues emerging from there. Families are the fundamental units of a society. Just like when molecules disintegrate so does the matter itself. When families break so is the society.
Looking at most families today, there are so many single parents especially mothers who are struggling to mould their kids the best way they know how. But some have been swept away by the storm of societal vices because of lack of father figures who are supposed to be a symbol of authority and values.
Psychology studies show that most kids who grow without their fathers are likely to become aggressive and defiant; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2518247/Growing-father-permanently-alter-BRAIN-Fatherless-children-likely-grow-angry-turn-drugs.html
And therefore seeing kids becoming defiant in schools and burning their own institutions is an indication that there is something wrong back at home.
Parents must rise up to occasion and be there for their kids. It is not all about the money and chasing your dreams.Values are instilled where there is love,care and attention.
The bible says:
Deuteronomy 11:19:
"You shall teach them to your sons,
talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and
when you lie down and when you rise up.
Proverbs 22:6: Start children off on the way they should
go,and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
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