Where are the parents?

Why aren't my students interested in floods? Why aren't they curious about watersheds and erosion and fast moving rivers and what happens when a foundation of a house breaks because of the force of water? This is cool stuff! For now, I'm blaming the parents. I want kids to stop playing video games and watching television and go outside. Turn off the iPods, the headphones, the tune-out devices and turn on the world. Geez. Talk to people in person. Hang out with friends, ride bikes and explore the world. Explore your neighborhood. Why don't my students know that there is a GIGANTIC river less than 3 miles away from school? WHY?

I blame parents.

"According to Rabbi Shmuley, one of the primary responsibilities of a parent is to foster his or her child's curiosity in life. As he discusses in Chapter 3 of his book 10 Conversations You Need to Have with Your Children, instilling a sense of intellectual curiosity is crucial for helping your child grow and thrive well into adulthood, he says.

How can this be achieved? Rabbi Shmuley offers these suggestions:


Actively engage your child's mind at every opportunity while avoiding mind-numbing activities such as hours of television or video games.
When your children pepper you with constant questions, indulge them with answers to the best of your ability.
Get your kids excited about reading, history, nature, politics and art.
Shift your academic expectations away from simply getting good grades to an emphasis on exploration, inquiry and a desire to learn.

If parents stifle, dampen or take an apathetic approach to their child's desire to learn and explore the world, they risk raising a child who succumbs to boredom, which Rabbi Shmuley calls "the bane of human existence." "If they don't become intellectually curious, what you get is these kids who are half dead—the zombies, the living dead, the ones who walk around without any energy—and we parents are responsible for this," he says. "