Commitment

Had a good breakfast this morning with a friend. As usual, we covered every topic we could in a span of 2 hours. A great feat for ladies like us.

Anyway, the subject of commitment came up. What are we parents teaching our children about commitment? As adults, we learned that being committed means persevering, hard work and being there when we say we would.

We spoke about children not going to school before their exams because they want to revise at home or not going to school after the exams because the teachers are not teaching and there's nothing to do. Now, if we allow our children to stay home, where are their commitment in going to school? What are we telling the teachers and classmates? We do as we please because we can or we go to school when we need to and don't when we have received what we wanted?

Do we see how our children's attendance affect the class? What if the teacher has planned projects or games for the class? How can she execute her plans when half the class is absent? What does this say about the child? She's not dependable, lazy, or tidak apa.

I believe a person's commitment to anything shows a lot about he/she. What are our children's responsibilities? It's school. My 15 year old daughter just finished her PMR. She continued attending school until recently. We wanted her to learn volunteer work so in her whole school life this is the first time we allowed her to stop going to school. She's is now doing volunteer work from 9-5, five days a week.

Parents, as much as we would like our children to be home with us, allowing them to miss school teaches them that it's ok to play hooky. Noticed adults who play hooky at work? Where did they learned that from?