Article Contribution by Maina Watene
It is the responsibility of all of us fathers to train our children in the way they should go.
That presupposes that we should be well versed with the way they should go. A saying goes that, “so goes the fathers, so goes society” and never has this statement been so evident like it is in our generation. Though often unsaid, corruption is the resultant effect of lack of intentional fathering and it really undoes a nation in unfathomable ways and fast too; it perpetrates injustices for the masses wallowing in poverty giving proof to
what a wise Hebrew King once said, “Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor, And for lack of justice there is waste.” Fathers are therefore very important people in a society and should never entertain anything that in the present or future would harm a society.
A nation is not an amorphous structure formed by chance. It is a grander presentation of the ideal basic family unit of a father, mother and children; but we are not blind to the existence of single parent families. Ideally, our nation would be in a far better place if fathers were leaders at the family level. But how can one be a great leader without a job or not earning enough? We are living in times where the general perception is that leadership is only possible only when you have economic muscle. This couldn’t be further from the truth. A leader remains a leader regardless of his audience because it is his mandate. From a father to fathers, we need to be intentional with our leadership. You can never be an inspiring leader if you are not passionate about something. Yes we came into the world, went through formal education that really prepared us very well to be good employees, or simple business men and chances are that we studied courses which we only qualified
for by passing in a combination of subjects designed by a demotivated, tired bureaucrat; yet they decided our fate by calling us failures after national exams at the primary and secondary levels. We believed them without questioning and we resigned to miserable careers that put us on edge every evening that we end up being mean to those we love drowning our real selves at social joints. Again I am reminded of an ancient King whose
predecessor never annihilated the enemies of that nation and as a result when the next king took over, he had to fight his father’s wars, his wars and his sons’ wars to allow his sons and their generation to live in peace.
A good place to begin is taking charge of our children’s education. Let’s not wait for the government to educate our children through the system of the day preparing them for national examinations yet the affluent of society are preparing their children for the challenges of tomorrow (and we wonder why their children will still be leadership years from now). Renowned African businessman, Strive Masiyiwa suggests some of the skills
to teach include problem solving, how prepare a financial ledger, to basic programming/ coding, internet and it workings including cloud services website and domains, selling things online as well as basic craft skills such as wood work, agriculture, tailoring, and even art among many others.
At the end of the day, it is our responsibility to teach our children in the way they should go. @watens