The seeds of violence

I have always felt that a lot of things taught to children in schools are not true and do great harm to the child’s personality. In history classes for instance they teach that Alexander, Napolean, Chengiz Khan were great conquerors. Page after page is written about violent conquerors while comparatively little is written about evolved beings like Gautam Buddha. The fact is there is nothing great about these so called conquerors and rulers. They were violent and cruel men who killed millions of innocent people to feed their own ambitions. It is true they had an excellent ability to motivate their army to march and keep fighting but behind all this was their own ambition. Moreover a person who plunders and kills people to fulfill his ambitions can never be great. Yet this is all constantly being fed to kids in school. The consequence is that it makes a child feel that dominating others through force is good; violence is good and being indifferent to others to fulfill one’s ambitions is good. In other words the seeds of violence are sown at a very tender age in the impressionable minds of the children. Is it any wonder that people have become so violent in today’s society? Most people today if asked of their opinion of these conquerors would exclaim “Oh he was a great man”. Even admiring or calling a violent person great is siding with violence. A society where violent people are idolized in the pages of history can never really be free of violence. I really wonder why history does not emphasize on Jesus, Buddha and other great and evolved beings and does not expunge violent men from its’ pages as they deserve to be forgotten. I can understand that an adult mind can discriminate but the minds of children are like sponge and are very impressionable and whatever they are taught they will accept. Morever, most children have an innocent admiration for their teachers and that doubles the danger.

I strongly feel parents must monitor their kids and must constantly take note as to what their child is learning in school. Just because a teacher has taught something it does not mean it is true. Parents must de-condition their child and must set things straight. If a teacher has fed into a child that someone like Alexander or Chengis Khan was a great person, then it becomes the duty of the parent to tell the child that they are not rather someone like Buddha is and the parent must also tell why so that the child introspects and understands.