Teaching Children Virtue-Really: La Educación

(Originally published September 1, 2020)

Covid-19 has challenged us all in many ways but especially in educating our children.  Parents, teachers, and children are all struggling with how to do this education thing and stay safe.  Besides the lack of access and ability to manage the virtual platforms teachers are pressured to teach the same subject matter in a completely different way; parents are frustrated trying to figure out how to support their children with computer-based technology and subject matter they are unfamiliar with while trying to manage all their other responsibilities. And children struggle to stay focused on a screen that drains them while really missing their connection to their friends and their social activities.

In all of this, the more important question is what are we teaching the young people and what are they learning … about life, about what to do when things are uncertain, about how to handle things when WE don’t know what to do, and more importantly about how we treat them and each other when things get tough. When I grew up in my familia we would call that La Educación or the Virtues of life. Oh, doing good at school was important but more important was having a strong faith, treating all people with respect, good values and always doing your best. But in difficult times what really kept us strong were the elders, blessing us up every day, reminding us that we were sacred and that together we’d make it through.

So now is that time again that we need to treat each other Virtue-Really. Yes, really being kind, really compassionate, really being supportive of one another, and just really doing the best we can. And in the end, feeding our faith and not our fears while reminding each other that through it all we are REALLY still a blessing and sacred and together we will Really make it through.

To see the full message and to read testimonies from NCN staff, please click this LINK