Delegating is when you give another some degree of your authority and/or responsibility to be used on your behalf.
Most often, we think of delegation in the business world or in the political world. A company delegates to its leaders the authority to carry out the responsibility it also delegates to them. A political party or government entity delegates to its delegates the authority to act on its behalf by voting, lobbying or governing as its proxy.
Parents also delegate some of their authority and responsibility to those who can contribute to the training up of their children.
Here are four principles to keep in mind when delegating some of your parental responsibilities.
1. Values are inseparably a part of education. I’ve heard people say many times that schools shouldn’t be teaching values. They should leave that up to parents, they say, and not teach kids what to believe about the science of origins, the perspective to take on God, history and general worldview. But to expect educators to teach students from a place of presenting facts only without their values seeping through is unrealistic. The examples, illustrations and subject matter that are inevitably a part of teaching even subjects like math and history come from choices educators make as a part of their decision-making process in teaching. It’s impossible to separate themselves from their own personal worldview as they make those decisions, so their teaching will include their values.
2. Values in education are determined by the party funding the education. If parents want to place their kids in a school that will teach them the parents’ values, they must choose a school that aligns with their worldview. If you hold strongly to a Creation science worldview, public school may not be the best choice for you. If your perspective is strongly Protestant or evangelical, it’s unlikely that a Catholic school will match up with what you want your child to understand and believe.
3. Every individual school in a school system is unique. Don’t assume that every school within a particular system is the same. The faculty and administration in one public school may have a strong pattern of Christian faith, while the personnel in a school a neighborhood or two away in the same system may be very different. And the group of parents and families within a school is also an important consideration.
4. The more a school differs in values from the parents, the more involved the parents need to be with their child. However different or alike the parents and the school are in their worldview and values, parents should never wipe their hands of their kid’s education; delegating it wholesale to the educational institution robs parents of the irreplaceable influence their child needs from them. On one level, parents must clarify for the child the disparity between what they’re being taught at school and what parents want to help them understand and believe. And perhaps even more important is the parent-child connection that happens in the teaching and training process. Effective parents cannot afford to sacrifice that, as it pays dividends for the duration of the child’s life; the parent-child connection is irreplaceable, and serves as a massive part of the child’s lifelong personality, not to mention the all-important parent-child relationship for the duration of their lives.
I’ve written referring almost exclusively to a conventional schooling arrangement. But two more points I’d like to make:
- Homeschooling gives the parents more control in shaping the child’s worldview than any other approach to education. Not every parent or every child is cut out for homeschooling, but parents should at least consider the option.
- The delegation principles also apply to extracurricular decisions, like sports, the arts, etc.
Parents, I hope you find these helpful. If you’d like to have further discussion about it, please reach out to me by email with your thoughts at gabrieltew@gabrieltew.com.