Do you know that maintaining following up your children, feeding them, keeping up their good appearance, and helping them do their school duties is merely “care” not “education”!

Many parents think that they have done their educational duties towards their children with providing them with food, housing, and clothing; and meeting their material needs. However, there is a great difference between education and care in bringing up children.

The difference between education and care

There is a great difference between care and education. Taking care of the child means provision of his essential needs and following him up in general, a job that can be done by baby-sitters, not only parents. However, education is the main factor in the formation of the child’s personality, a participatory effort done by the father, the mother, and the teacher. Through education, they shape the child’s character and help him discover and develop his hobbies and talents, boost his self-confidence, and enhance his awareness – to become a good person that has a positive role to do in society.

Education is the process of guiding the child towards good morals, values ​​and principles, and help him acquire good habits. Education is building a positive element in society that is reliable in all aspects of life, someone that is diligent and capable of developing and improving himself. This can be done through five things:

First: building child’s convictions through creed, principles, values, aspirations, and understanding life.

Second: guiding and directing child’s interests, i.e. things that a child is concerned with, including how to spend his free time.

Third: developing child’s skills, whether these skills were mental, social, administrative, scientific, or in sports and arts.

Fourth: Understanding the rules governing relations: Who can you choose to be your friend? Who must you avoid? And how to build, restore or terminate relations?

Fifth: Choosing role models - the ideals and good examples that a child aspires to become like them in the future - as well as understanding the laws governing the relation with role models.

On the other hand, care focusses on maintaining the child’s health and security as well as provision of food, drink and clothing, and helping him do his school duties, a job that can be done by any person on behalf of the parents, although it is one of the child’s rights.

“Undoubtedly, care is very important in child's life, including love, compassion, and providing essential needs, but all this will not build his mind; you may feed him to grow, but he will still need a lifelong approach and a role model to help him know the right and wrong and do the good deeds,” says Eman Mahmoud.

Providing care without education results in weak men, irresponsible women, careless employees, students skipping their schools, persons stealing their own brothers, and streets full of dirt because no one has ever taught a child not to throw garbage on the ground.

Care without education leads to creation of an egoistic person that does not care about anything but himself. You will also find a son that is disobedient to his parents, irresponsible, unreliable, talentless and uncreative.

Parents’ role in raising their children

The role of parents in raising their children is extremely significant, as they can constitute good examples for their kids in all aspects of life.

Parents can help their children discover their talents and strengths, so that they would become creative individuals in society that can spend their free time in useful work.

Parents must be keen on raising their children to be committed to religion teachings, and be role models in performing prayers on time, attending congregational prayers at mosque, and reciting the holy Quran on a daily basis.

Parents must not harm their child psychologically or physically. They can warn their child but avoid threatening him, especially in front of others. They should be keen on instilling principles and good values ​​in their kids, teach them to avoid telling lies, help others, and be considerate of animals.

Parents must answer all the questions raised by their children, no matter how trivial, and be keen on building an independent personality for the child and allow him to express his opinion on everything related to him, no matter how young he may be.

The role of education is to instill values ​​in the child, so that the younger would respect the older, and the older would be kind to the younger; and also to enhance a child’s self-confidence.

The values ​​and principles do not belong only to children, so as a teacher you have to become role models for your children.

Parents should be role models for their children. They should not tell lies, especially in front of them, so that they would learn to avoid telling lies. They should respect their children’s minds and privacy and avoid bullying or intimidating them.

While care for children can be assigned to others, education cannot, being the primary duty of the parents, assisted by faithful educators.

Education was summarized by Hillary Clinton in her book: “It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us”, published in 1996, when she quoted an African proverb saying, “It takes a village to raise a child”, which means that an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment.  

Therefore, parents, as well as teachers should keep an eye on children and follow up activities, give them a hand in choosing good friends and useful books, and help them solve their problems – along with provision of their essential needs.