Dear Editor,
When I browse through the newspapers and or listen to the other news media all kinds of thoughts pass through my mind. One of them is: Are our men proud to have sons or are they proud of their sons. Another thought is that there is something fundamentally wrong with compulsory education as opposed to being able to be elected to Parliament without an education. A child is compelled to remain in school up to a certain age, whereas he/she could be elected to Parliament without any kind of education.
The ladies should not take me wrong, but when I read 1 Corinthians 11, Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 2 I am convinced that men should take their rightful place in the household. From my experience on the job, I know that a whole lot of misunderstandings in the households have come because of the difference in income. A reason for that is that, of late, when it comes to who has the better education, the women outnumber the men.
I believe that someone will react by reminding me that one of those reasons is being the difference in salaries. Point taken, but not well taken, because that is never a valid reason for not pursuing an education. Hence the reason for my question in the beginning of this letter.
I know that without the basics in education you cannot do anything. I was told at one time that the prison leadership wanted to start a GED for the prisoners, but could not get it off the ground, because the average education level was at 4th grade level.
The basics are always necessary. If one can afford a phone and one cannot read the instructions how to operate the phone the phone will be of no use to that person. And so it is with almost everything but prayer.
I believe if one wants to occupy the position of head of the household one has to be able to be and live up to the task. Because my father sailed, and he wanted us to know who was in charge when he was not around, when we wanted something he would always ask us “what did our mother say?” Depending on that answer he would take his decision.
But he always told us that if you want to be head of the household, you need to earn and deserve it, because it came with responsibilities. One of the responsibilities is to be able to assist your children with their education. “I do not know” was never an answer that my father gave us. Instead he would refer us to the dictionary to find the word, read the meaning; after, we would discuss it. But to be able to do that one has to equip oneself with the tools.
I strongly believe that our men should adjust their priorities and start again doing what it takes to at length be able to stand up and say, “That is my son.”
Russell A. Simmons
