Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother's Day

This week in central Florida we are celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother’s Day. Consider for a moment the impact of mothers on education:

First, mothers educate children to become responsible adults. Spencer Kinard, author of A Moment’s Pause concluded; “How are children and youth best trained to be responsible, mature, contributing adults? There is little question that a good and loving family is the ideal setting for a child to grow, to learn, to be molded; and at the heart of the family is the mother. It follows, then, that no one serves the community, the nation, or the world better than the caring mothers who caress the babies of the world; the mothers who rock the worried child to sleep, who wipe the fevered brow, who give so much and ask so little.”

Second, a mother is a child’s first teacher. According to Sidney Lesson, author of Raising Brighter Children, “Whenever the question of educating children is raised, thoughts usually turn to school and to schoolteachers- an unfortunate association of ideas, for mothers are; and have always been, their children’s first and most important teachers. What mothers teach, or fail to teach, intentionally or unintentionally, profoundly influences their children’s entire lives.

Home is, in a practical sense, currently and traditionally, a child’s first school. Here, a child’s learning pattern is established; here the seed is planted, or not, for advanced education. And here each child acquires an assortment of strengths and advantages, or handicaps and vulnerabilities that predispose him to success or failure, to happiness or unhappiness.”

Third, mothers deserve support. According to Kinard, “Mothers deserve the support of a faithful and loving family- husband and children. She deserves the highest consideration from society; for, without her, society would fall far short. She deserves the praise of poets, the laurels of statesmen, and the humble gratitude of all. Eventually, it will not be the stentorian speeches, the iron boots, the thundering cannons, or the screaming missiles that will decide the future of the world. No, it will be decided by the gentle hands, the soft caress, the lilting lullaby, the whispered words of love and truth from mothers to their children.”