We hear teachers speak daily about it being the parents' jobs to raise their unruly demon children. What nobody says or hears is the obvious: the intensity of that job, the weight of that responsibility. I haven't children of my own to raise, but if I did, I can assure any parent out there that I wouldn't be able to do it correctly, because I don't know the first thing about how to raise a child. So what, I work in a nursery. I know how to change a diaper and potty train. But I don't know how to teach what really counts. I don't know how to teach another person to empathize before they take actions. I don't know how to tell them what the great things in life are. I don't know how to steer a child in the right direction morally, because I hardly know where I'm going. I sometimes wonder if the parents of the world feel the same way. I know mine do. Maybe I'm just looking at someone else's mid-life crisis and assuming that one small part represents the aggregate. Basically, this article isn't about what it takes to be a parent because I don't know. It's not about what should and shouldn't be done. I don't know that either. I just want to use this space to make a well-deserved congratulations to the parents of some of the great people I know. I don't know how these parents did it, but I have been surrounded by people whom, I believe, will prove to be the great thinkers of our generation.
