Amb. Joshua Fagbemi
Ed. 197/ 30.09.2022
There is a clear, direct linkage between the home and the society at large — it’s like a rope connecting right from a particular source to a specific end. One can say the home is a foundation on which a society is laid and determines how society will be shaped. Imagine erecting the structure of a building. The things that state how solid the building will shape range from the quality of the materials, the solidity of its foundation, the firmness of its pillars, and the level of the building engineer’s professionalism. The same applies to the context of a home and its society. In essence, we can reasonably say society is the product of a home.
In the education framework, all varieties of education are said to have started from the education a child receives at home, called moral education. This kind of education is expected to be inculcated in every individual right from the baby stage. It is believed that what a child learns right from the onset will likely affect his perspectives and life’s journey. The concept is like installing programming languages or codes into a system to perform according to the program function. Moral education works that way; therefore, it serves as a foundation in a child’s life and determines how well such a child will react and respond to the teachings that are to come.
Embedded in moral education is home training. The essence of home training is to prepare a child’s mind for certain traits that will help him adjust to life activities in years to come. Also, it often determines the kind of character, behaviour or attitude a child will manifest. The Bible says, “train up a child the way he’s meant to and when he grows up he will never depart from it”. This clearly describes the assertion that a child’s life is usually determined from a young age. A child’s brain has been said to stop receiving new adaptations at age 5. This means that a child’s character would have been determined before his 5th birthday.
How does this affect society? As we know, the family is a subset of society. Everyone in society is an offspring of various homes and what has been injected into our minds is what we express and act upon in society. A child brought up in the right way will undoubtedly display such positive traits anywhere he finds himself in society. On the other hand, a child raised wrongly will also manifest and act according to the negative attitudes that have been sowed in him. We can then postulate that if there happens to be any error during the process of child upbringing, such will lead to the expression of negative behaviour from the individual to the society.
As society harbours different sets of home products, the kind of contents the home spells out to society is what society voices out. An individual of any negative behaviour will act on such and thus affect society’s activities in one way or another. Imagine the effect of a serial killer or rapist on the sanity of society — such an individual will indirectly be a pain to many. A society filled with actions that boils out to confusing questions must have had a bad foundation –i.e., the home. Broken homes, single parents, and children born out of cruel incidence like rape always result in the production of individuals that manifest negative attitudes and affect the sanity of society, though not in all cases.
Over time, it has been seen that those who tend to be successful and promote peace in society always have it all imbibed right from their young age. The kind of teachings a child receives from home is stored in the brain, and those ideas (either good or bad) are likely to grow and develop year in and year out. After some time, the mind sees those ideas as the right and proper way of behaving, and their traits are being manifested. As mentioned earlier, once there’s a failure in a child’s upbringing from home, it is very hard and often impossible to correct. An individual whose character negates the norm expected in a sane society will indeed cause chaos and affect the peace of their environment.
Nigerian society is polluted with all sorts of insane characters and elements. The features that back this up are there for evidence; they include corruption, kidnappings, inequalities, deceits, failed promises, brutal killings, the loss of innocent lives, a high rate of rape cases and insecurity — to mention a few. These and many more are of a society filled with insanity, a failed society, and a society that has been affected right from its foundation. Until we trace the problems back to the source, we will only have to ourselves the geometric progression of these negative behaviours. The home needs to be set back to order, readjusted, and reshaped for a better tomorrow and a sane society.
The essence of a sane society is to guarantee peace. The presence of peace sets the environment into a paradise on earth. This kind of scenario isn’t impossible, and to bring such into reality, the home, which is the bedrock of society, needs to be worked on. There’s a need to educate and re-educate the home stakeholders to be aware of their significance and determinant role in society’s activities. A good home structure guarantees a positive individual; a positive individual is a key to having a sane society, and a sane society is a stamp of peace.
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