For most families, the annual trek back to school is one event in a year that mobilises all the planning, effort and resources the entire family can afford. Education is on top of the list of priorities of a family especially the parents.

Within the confines of the classroom, kids are supposed to learn not only academic subjects but also values and principles that are the basic tenets of being a righteous citizen and a good person. The values of truth, honesty, fairness, patriotism and service to others and family are highly regarded. When kids graduate from high school, it is hoped that they have imbibed all these values as they continue to pursue higher education in college and eventually their own lives.

But what is it that schools really teach kids in grade school and high school? Is their education just really confined within the four walls of the classroom? Shakespeare once said, “All the world is a stage.” In this day and age, all the world is a classroom would be more appropriate. This is one reality everybody needs to be aware of. Schools alone do not produce excellent students. The home, the family, the schools, the churches, the community and the nation as a whole are all responsible for making kids better persons, better citizens and better workers. Everybody is in the business of teaching kids together.

Parents send their kids to school because they believe that they owe it to their children to equip them with the necessary knowledge, skills and values to better compete with others once they leave the school campus. Parents take comfort in the knowledge that the school and its teachers will provide the kids with proper education and teach them how to be honourable citizens and productive workers.

In truth, kids start their education in the home, learning from parents, their siblings and their neighbors. Kids get the affirmation of their values and principles from the daily happenings that transpire around them, thus, the need for elders to set good examples.

Going to school should be a positive influence on kids to at least offset some of the unpleasant things that, sad to say, surround them in the real world. It is undoubtedly a tough job for schools these days. Needless to say, the school is not a fortress where students are protected from the harsh realities of the outside world. It is a place where kids are taught how to deal with them and how to be better persons to make the world a pleasant place to live in but this calls for concerted efforts from everybody around.