I see many parents striving to raise competent professionals for the future while neglecting their children’s character development.
Technical skills often become obsolete, as technology evolves incessantly. There are professionals — theoretically highly qualified — who remain unemployed for reasons that go far beyond technical ability. When the focus is solely on technical mastery, replacement by a machine is only a matter of time. The same truth applies to creative and athletic pursuits.
Take sports, for instance: coaches and managers often say that teams seek players who offer more than talent. There’s little point in hiring a star who disrupts the group. Discipline and sociability count for much more.
“Education must never be merely the transmission of knowledge, but rather the creation of personal responsibility.”
— Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Overloading a child with classes and technical tasks is no guarantee of success. Raising a child with principles, discipline, kindness, and initiative opens far more doors than any technical training ever could.
In a world dominated by artificial intelligence, automation, and relentless change, the actual distinction lies in character — not in mechanics.
Another critical point is the tendency to maintain certain practices merely for appearance’s sake, even when they no longer work or contradict the family’s principles. This often happens because, by delegating their children’s education to others, parents inadvertently expose them to values that may not align with those they hold dear at home.
“We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar to be educated and be surprised when they come home as Romans.”
— Voddie Baucham
Even when others take part in a child’s upbringing, the ultimate responsibility for the values and influences shaping that child still rests with the parents. The marks printed in a child’s mind will remain until later in life, shaping the taste and morals. Even the slightest influence can disrupt the parents intentions. Not only by ‘Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”, as written in 1 Corinthians 15:33
The enormous success of Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation has drawn global attention to how social media is derailing childhood. Yet, several authors raised these concerns long before — Michel Desmurget, Susan Linn, and Bryan Caplan, among others, warned of the disruptive effects digital media has on children and their development. What remains less discussed, however, is how it also distorts their sense of beauty, virtue, and the sublime. It is not only bad company that corrupts character, but also bad content.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
— Proverbs 22:6
Teach a child to focus on what is timeless — the moral, the ethical, and the sublime. Everything else will, sooner or later, become obsolete.
Footnotes
Footnotes
- Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 111.
- Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (New York: Penguin Press, 2024).
- Michel Desmurget, La Fabrique du Crétin Digital: Les Dangers des Écrans pour Nos Enfants (Paris: Seuil, 2019).
- Susan Linn, Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children (New York: The New Press, 2022).
- Bryan Caplan, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think (New York: Basic Books, 2011).
- Voddie T. Baucham Jr., Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 46.
- The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Proverbs 22:6.