DROWNING IN ALCOHOL

KENYA STRUGGLES WITH RISING ALCOHOLISM!  (IPS INTER PRESS SERVICE).
According to the Report - circa March 2015 - Sales of Alcohol rose by 67% in Spirits.   And the middle teenage (16) were becoming an age group that was rising comparably.    Certainly in Schools across the Country Alcoholism is becoming an increasing threat to learning, with children as young as 12 being targeted even with hard spirits.    This is usually imported from home or duka. Sometimes it is stolen from home, where the parents have the stuff on display for their own consumption, and at other times the money is stolen to buy it from an adjacent duka.   There also those who might 'peddle' the stuff right up to the school gates! To combat this School Administrations have to become more and more vigilant, putting extra pressure and stress on teaching staff as well.     We are not addressing other substances and drugs here, just Alcohol!!    BEER or Pombe is also increasing in consumption both among adults and teenagers.     The Government has consistently increased tax and sales price of Beer, and even Spirits, and although this HAS diminished Sales it has not reduced the incidence of drunkenness and Rape.    Why can't we shut down the Breweries?    Because the Government needs the taxation it gains from them!!    
The photo at the top was taken in Nyeri Town and is obviously of a man drunk and mentally deranged by some alcoholic substance.     He is probably also a victim of unemployment.      The more scary problem threatens us from the Teenage society, which forms the basis for our future intelligentsia and who are already becoming addicted to one of the most popular destructive elements in our world.   By the time our students leave University they are already drunkards, and continue to be so after Graduation, providing us with an unreliable and often 'unqualified' professional who is unable to give of his / her best in society.
The IPS Report also comments and says - 'The Alcoholic Drinks Control Act was substantially weakened in 2013 with the introduction of 'devolved government'.  This system of 'home rule' means  that each county government must ratify the Act - an uphill battle because some county leaders are also the owners of bars and breweries.'    Not an encouraging picture for the future.   And this is in fact a World Wide attack upon our society and especially upon our young people.     The IPS Report also comments on availability of help to those Addicts who may wish to Reform.     Stating that the the age-group currently the highest and most affected are 'between 15 and 29' years old, the Report continues, and adds - 'Alcoholics wanting to end their addictions have little recourse (according to Dr. William Sinkele, Executive Director of Support for Addictions Prevention and Treatment in Africa (SAPTA).   While Kenya has over 70 in patient treatment centres only three are government run. The rest are privately owned.   Whilst it is good we have these centres, most are concentrated around the Nairobi area.  We do not have many centres outside Nairobi.  The average Kenyan with an Alcohol or drug problem CANNOT afford the Treatment, he said.'

Brenda Mkwesha writing in the Blog ' IOGT International Temperance says " The odds seems to be against us, but we have, here, driven teams that will not just stand by while we flush our lives down the toilet.   Here's to a Life Set Free!'

IF Jesus is with them they have HOPE!

'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging;

and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise

Proverbs 20v1 - The Bible, Old Testament

We are being told here, that wine laughs at us.  and strong drink turns us into raging, uncontrolled, animals.   Look also at Proverbs 23v31-32      'Look not thou at the wine when it is red.

when it giveth his colour in the cup

when it moveth of itself aright.

AT THE LAST it biteth like a serpent

and stingeth like an adder"

Alcohol can be attractive, and liberating, but at the last it will turn upon you.    'Who has woe?  Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining?  Who has woulds without cause?  Who has redness and dimness of eyes?    THOSE who spend a lot of time with the wine;  those who go to seek and try mixed drinks (Alcoholic).

Those who habitually take in alcohol become, to a lesser or greater degree, acquainted with the results listed above; and they become also to a lesser or greater degree, debauchees (habitually careless and loose in their moral life - having suppressed the LIKENESS of their original design and purpose; their likeness to God Who created them to be like Himself.  Their Conscience, normally restraining them, having been paralysed and drugged  into silence.   (Ephesians 5v18 in the Bible - New Testament).

MANY will resist this reasoning, and may even accuse the BIBLE of recommending a little alcohol when one is sick - or to make one merry / happy.     What harm in that?     NONE,  if that is where it might stop, but alas it can take a hold of us until not only our 'sickness' is assuaged,  but also until all knowledge of it is abandoned to dreams in which we are no longer in charge of our self.     ALCOHOL deceives us.     It makes us believe a lie.    It turns off our human perception and awareness of the truth relative to what we are doing, thinking and so on.  Alcohol makes a joke of our humanity, and makes us LESS than the One Who made us.   It also makes a joke of - it MOCKS, GOD ALMIGHTY as well, by rendering what He made to be admired, honoured and seen as a Child of His, as nothing more than junk.

Just a LITTLE alcohol can take us on to drunkenness; a state in which we no longer have control over our mind or body.   We become out of control, and our life can then be quite messed up with 'Trouble, Strife, Wounds, Eye Problems and Hallucinations, Immoral Behaviour, Mental Confusion, Physical Unsteadiness.   It is a picture of RUINATION; of a spoiled, degraded and unrecognisable human being.     

If YOU are a regular partaker of alcohol, you probably will feel I am very ill informed.     BUT honestly, as one who once was such a partaker, I feel able to testify of the TRUTH of what I have written, and to uphold the TRUTH of the Bible as the Word of God.

Look at The Bible again in Isaiah 5v11 and see a picture of those whose addiction to alcohol has taken complete hold of them so that they pursue it day and night.     And also in the Bible in Habakkuk 2v15 we find those who encourage others to drink until all moral reservation is removed and the nakedness of each other is revealed so that sexual intercourse and other misbehaviour can be achieved.

It is a work, pursuit and enterprise of DARKNESS and ignorance.

St. PAUL said that HE would rather NEVER drink wine or strong drink if that would help him not to hurt or destroy, or lead another human being astray - Romans 14v21 and 1.Corinthians 8v13.

ABSTINENCE  in not a bad way to keep oneself CLEAN and HEALTHY.       Some can boast of being able to 'Take their drink' and all that - yet they give a ruinous example to their family, their friends and colleagues - and all the time what they put into themselves wreaks havoc with their vital organs, to the eventual hurt and even destruction of their body.

If you have been deceived to see no danger in being a user of alcohol then you are not WISE.     You lack WISDOM.    You will suffer for it.

When I was a young man my Pastor, then quite elderly, attended a Reception to which a certain young man had been also invited. Drinks were being handed round (Champagne) and the young man wondered what he should do; should he also have some, or abstain. He thought, I will watch what Pastor will do - he will know best.   He looked and found the Pastor, and already in his hand was a glass of champagne..      The young man took, one.   He liked it and took another, and another.........

Twenty years later the Pastor was called to a famous Prison just for murderers in London.    When he arrived the Prison Governor said a man who was sentenced to Death, and waiting to be hung for murder later in the week, had asked to see him.       The Pastor did not know the name, but agreed to see the prisoner.      He was shown, by a guard, to the cell.

He found a man of about 40. standing inside.   He was let in, and the two, Pastor and prisoner shook hands.     "Do you remember me?" asked the prisoner.     The pastor shook his head, wondering what would be said next.     " I called you here, said the prisoner. because you are the cause of me being here.     When I needed direction I looked to you for help, and you led me to accept alcohol into my life.     I became hooked on it.     And it eventually led me to kill my wife and son in a drunken rage.      I wanted you to know!"      He shouted then for the guard and told the Pastor to get out of his cell.        The Pastor was crushed.    He was elderly then, and he told me how truly terrible it was to be faced with such a fact.    He remembered the Reception.    He was a Methodist preacher, and had made up his mind NEVER to drink alcohol, but at that Wedding Reception - his first, he hesitated from causing offence by NOT accepting the champagne as it was offered.   He took just the one glass - but never drank it.    He had just carried it around with him, and later on managed to put it, un-drunk, back on to a passing tray.   The Prisoner was duly hung by the neck until he was dead.   HOW CAREFUL all of us have to in HOW we live.     

My Faith in God SAVED me from drink.      I have a son of my own now, in his thirties who drinks.     He is so far not interested in God, and is struggling to put his life together.    It is HARD.   Pray for me, and for him.     I am hurting because of his hurt. and he is hurting because he is hurting others.    The Answer of course for him and for me is JESUS.     One cry to HIM from my son, and we shall both rejoice in the Love of God that is able to RESCUE us out of all and ANY of our troubles.

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CRAZY FOR SEX

'MOTHERS PUT THEIR TEENS ON BIRTH CONTROL'  

This is one of the Headlines in to-day's Daily Nation here in Kenya. 'Some parents' the article continues ' are secretly putting rebellious daughters on contraceptives...

girls are being duped into getting contraceptive injections, disguised as cervical cancer vaccines,

while boys re being encouraged to carry condoms.'

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?    Well look around you!   The whole world society is 'hooked'  on SEX, even more than Heroin!     Television is practically ALL sex, more or less as graphic as it comes. You can't sell a tooth-brush or a computer without some sexual allusion - more or less explicit.   Books, films, fashions, music, are all geared to sex together with the road hoardings and advertising in general.   There are no 'childrens' programmes or other material that can be said to be without sex.    From six years children are dressed up, made, up, and encouraged to act like adults - including the idea of falling in love with each other. IS IT SURPRISING that more and more pregnancies are occurring among children from 13 upwards, and sometimes even younger?   Little proper advice, information, or even education on these matters is given at home OR inj school..     And when council is given 'when you talk about these things with teenagers they just dismiss you as being ignorant or outdated, says one mother.'   AND the 2014 Family Planning 2020 Report shows that   'in sub-Saharan African countries, more than 15 percent of girls have their first sexual experience before their 15th Birthday.   As they grow into their late teens and early 20s, their sexual relations become more and more spur of the moment, unprotected. slapdash affairs'

Parents are more and more anxious about their children; anxious enough to take steps to try to prevent them from unwanted pregnancies.

BUT such action does not always lead to success, but to even worse conclusions.    For example 'Gemma' a girl of 15 was secretly tricked into taking the Pill.    After a short time (two weeks) she suffered a stroke, which the doctor attributed to having taken the Pill.    Two years later, at 17, she suffered a second stroke leaving her unable to walk or talk.   Her mother wrote 'I thought the Pill was harmless, but now my daughter is in hospital, unable to walk or talk.    Her whole life and future blighted - at 17!

IN THE BIBLE - In the Old Testament Book of Leviticus chapter 19v29 it is written -

'Do not profane (make unholy/unclean/impure/contemptible) your daughters by causing her to be a harlot,
(by encouraging her to indulge in pre marrital sex)

lest the land fall into harlotry, and become 

full of wickedness.'

Interesting verse isn't it, and I suppose some might immediately say YES, that is why we have to act for our daughters the way we do; that is why we have to get them on the Pill, and our sons the Condoms!      Well it IS one way of looking at it.......ANOTHER way would be to say that such action only encourages, and precipitates 'the whole land falling into harlotry and wickedness.'     Hmmm.

Some years ago now, in the 90s, some overseas donor offered to put Dispensers of Free Condoms in every University - as a precaution against HIV /AIDS!     This under the Governments concern to promote 'SAFE' sex,      I confronted our local Medical Officer of Health on the issue, and asked him if it was true that even Condoms of ANY kind were NOT Faith safe.     A bit like 'Russian Roulet'.   Additionally the condom, still a risk, actually encourages the majority into MORE sexual relationships increasing an immoral attitude in our sexual relationships nation wide.    Was it WORTH it?       The Physician sat at his desk looking a little disconcerted, and could not reply, except to say that the condoms being supplied were not the best, and that it was merely an attempt to calm any unrest being brought about by the AIDS scare.  I am sure he was relieved to see me go.

HUMANITY KNOWS THE RISKS in life, even warns about them, but usually does little to effectively prevent the inevitable from happening.     And usually MONEY or 'Filthy Lucre' as the Bible calls it, is at the bottom of everything - the ROOT of every evil.      Thus our governments who are supposed to protect and improve us, will often say little in order to reap a profit somewhere, as with the sale of Beer, and  Cigarettes.   The greatest merchandise is made from Humanity itself; from you and me, and our children and grandchildren.

The PILL is a humanly devised convenience which has been more and more used to make sure we do not have to pay for our inexcusable behaviour toward and with one another.     It kills the the 'implant' but does not interrupt our fun, enjoyment, or the depreciation of Life itself.   I mean, that by freeing ourselves to indulge in sexual pursuits outside of the marriage bed, we selfishly and dishonorable use the Seed of Life itself to just please ourselves.

To give the Pill to children of 13 or under is totally irresponsible and dangerous.( Again some years ago a Kenyan Minister of Health, no longer in government, advised ALL mothers to make sure their 12 (TWELVE) year old girls went to School with the Pill in their handbag/purse/whatever).  AGAIN a very imperfect, if not almost totally useless way, of keeping my child safe.      My wife and I have brought up two daughters of our own, and countless others in a family averaging 70 members over 28 years,  30% being girls, and in our time saw only TWO become involved sexually with any boy, either within the Children's Home, School, or the neighbourhood.     We thought it was not a bad result.     We only had the ONE Home then, and now we have FOUR.     Out of the three or more hundred children, boys and girls, that have passed through, and about 140 that are still passing through,  this incidence has risen, but not enormously.    We do not hand out condoms or the PILL.        But of course we confront our children with those topics and human temptations that can get them into trouble, or harm the, and for the most part they listen and take notice.   We teach them about GOD, and His Commandments for life.

Naturally we are in no way trying undervalue the use of sexual relationships in life.    God Himself introduced the idea of SEX   BUT we are not encouraging the idea that it is a 'Plaything' or some casual, risky entertainment; only pointing our that it needs to be better presented than it it has been, and in such a way that People might understand the inadvisability of treating it with disrespect and careless ignorance.      It is meant FIRST for those who have come together in Marriage, and who then intend to produce children between themselves in that marriage.

ALL true wisdom come from above - from GOD alone.
Our world is increasingly dismantling the very idea of God. Respect for His Word, and Regard for his Law and Justice is rife - to say nothing of His Love and Mercy.      We are a world society that is less and less aware of God, and what pleases Him.  We do not appreciate His ability to intervene and interact with mankind.     We run not to HIM, but more and more to ourselves in order to work out our salvation the best we we can.       BUT GOD has told us to work out, solve, our salvation with FEAR and TREMBLING in case we get it wrong - and the only we to get it RIGHT is to give attention to HIS Word found in the BIBLE.

And God says 'BRING UP your child in the Way it should go.'   This is something every parent OUGHT to do, and it has to DO it KNOWING THE RIGHT WAY.        A child needs to know God's WAY, needs to KNOW about Jesus, and the PARENT is the one who has to know first, so that he or she can show the child.     It is a RESPONSIBILITY  many fail to take up, and thus  we find an increasing increment of Lawlessness, and Disregard for all that is Godly and RIGHT.      When we have managed to throw God, His Word, and His Way out of the 'window' we shall indeed live in total darkness and ignorance.
SO we should repent of this turn about, and come back to GOD, and God's way in our lives, for the sake of the next generation, the generation of our Children and grandchildren.    WE should read and give attention to what God is saying about it.    We should think carefully what He is saying in the Book of Deuteronomy chapter 8 in the Old Testament of the Bible, verses 1-15.    These are the verses that exhort us to TEACH our children about GOD - all the time from when they can understand between right and wrong - when you are sitting down in your house,when are out walking with them, and when you prepare for bed at night, AND when you get up in the morning.        IT IS THE ONLY WAY to instill into the mind and heart of any child a Way of Life he will ever remember and regard, till he or she dies.   And to do this well you need yourself to KNOW and LOVE God, and to be able to share you own personal stories about God from your own experience of Him!!     You should be doing this from the word GO, for the longer you leave it the less you will be regarded - the Way of the World around you will have led your child astray, kidnapping him, and preventing him from listening to you.

WALK IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH

with your children; tell the truth

TEACH them the Truth of God's Word and Commandments.

Each one of us holds the NEXT Generation in our hands.

What it will be like is up to each one of us.

TRAINED TO KILL AND TO DESTROY

WHAT ARE WE PUTTING IN OUR CHILDREN'S HANDS?    This little girl is holding a GUN in hers!    No joke either, and she represents a whole lot of children in our world who are being taught how to USE weapons of destruction; brought up on violence without any conscience or sense of what is right or wrong.    And, for the most part, the WORLD is not doing much about it.     ISIS, the Islamic State, as it is called, actively encourages it in fact, together with many terrorist organisations and Freedom Fighters the world over.     Are YOU happy about this?   What is YOUR heart and mind saying to you about this?
BELOW is another little girl with a Book in her hand.   The Noble Koran.
Some of those reading may think the Gun could agree with the Book!   But this would not be true, because the Koran itself is not VIOLENT unless those reading it interpret it to be so.   Even the Christians could, and might still, find verses within the text of the Bible to encourage violence, and cruelty which, if taken out of their right context, might insight extreme and excessive behaviour.      There is more MERCY, and COMPASSION in both Books than can be found in the Gun.   GOD has revealed that He cares about Man, and has no pleasure in the death of any.     Those who may, in error, argue the opposite about HIM, are totally astray and without the Truth.

THERE ARE SOME, that may shrug off the whole subject, and who believe it has nothing to do with them.     But the Cartoon to the left is right - the gun is bigger than the child.    He may be able to carry, and even know how to FIRE it, but he does not have the the inner strength to deal with the outcome.     He may fancy himself, in his imagination and thought, to be a 'RAMBO', but he is but a child.
In our Testimony School here in Eldoret, Kenya, we have had children of 10 to 12 years old enter the School having been child soldiers in Uganda and Sudan.    They were deeply disturbed children, filled with vivid and disturbing memories of their past actions.     It took a great deal of patient counselling and patience to help them put that past behind them.     Little men still growing up, having never seen life as a child sees it.     Little men, still with a child's heart, all mixed up with implanted hatred and violence, together with tears of emotional need for their own selves, as well as for those they had killed.

YES, the little girl in the top left photo may almost certainly grow up with a gun still in her hands!
She may indeed graduate to be a Soldier in some 'Movement' or other, and actually coldly become used to killing other human beings.     How old would you put this little man opposite?  Maybe 7 or 8?  And now HE is in uniform as well as having his gun at the ready! His parents have dressed him up to please him!   Can you imagine him facing the Enemy perhaps a whole Battalion of rebels - can you imagine him being shot to pieces by them, and left as garbage for the birds and wild animals to finish off?
WELL if he lives he will continue to grow.   There are many others older than him, and they don't even have uniforms - only the guns.   The two to the left, in their middle, upper teenage, are examples of the average 'child soldier', their rough and ready life fortified by Bhangi, and Changaa, until their minds barely know what they are doing or even why.   Many of them BEGAN as very young children.  AND if you think this is only a picture of Africa or South America, how about this photo from the Affluent West?
HERE WE HAVE MUMMY showing her young daughter how to fire an automatic pistol.   Is it for fun or self defence, and what will the outcome be, I wonder.   How many cases do we hear of, where some guy has burst into a school or church and let of his Guns in a killing spree - all because of something that happened, or he was taught, in his past.    YES the whole world lives on the brink, or in the very midst of violence and the sound of the gun, plus the slash of a knife.       And for the most part EVERYONE just accepts it, and says nothing. 
EVERY DAY I read in the Daily Mail, and other British National Newspapers, of the Killing that is going on the Middle East, in Syria, Iraq and Iran, to name a few.     In many cases the graphic evidence is appalling, and too terrible to even want to look at.     Just recently we were exposed to a photo of a young boy of 12 cutting the throat of an adult prisoner of war.     It has to be of the devil when adults force children to do their dirty work for them.   It has nothing to do with Religion or God.    It has to be the fruit of an anti God and anti human spirit.     If we all say nothing, and wink at it all, then one day we shall be overwhelmed by it.       What should we then do?    We must speak against it, and if necessary take measures to prevent such a code of conduct from continuing unchecked.         
The little girl top right of this blog was holding a Koran.       We want to believe that she had been taught that God was good, merciful and forgiving, rather than the butcher much of Islam demonstrates Him to be.       I hope the picture demonstrates the Way of Peace with God and Man.
I hope it can be an emblem of Hope for the Future.   I hope that Christians will also turn to the Bible, their own Holy Book, and teach their children about the LOVE of God for ALL mankind, including their enemies.   After all God Loves ALL mankind, regardless of colour, race, politics or religion.    He CREATED them all, and has no pleasure in the death of ANY.     If HE lives in us in any way or degree, then WE should become LIKE him, and work for the Salvation and Forgiveness of every soul.       AWAY with guns, and knives, together with hate, malice and bitterness.     LET US put into our children's hands and lives a BETTER way, a more God intentioned Way.   A Way of Love for all men, and desire to do them good.    
Above right is a Family doing the right thing.
They are encouraging their children to know GOD as they themselves do.      Here is the only REAL hope for the future.

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ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES 'JACK' A DULL BOY!?

TUESDAY'S DAILY NATION sported an Article by one Mr. Kennedy Buhere, a Communications Officer in the Ministry of EDUCATION, Science and Technology.     He writes :-  'The Ministry of Education BANNED mock examinations in September 2001 following recommendations in the report of the Task Forum on Student Discipline and Unrest in Secondary School.'
TODAY Kenya is still experiencing incidents of 'student unrest' and even in the last few days yet another Boys Boarding School had its dormitories set on fire by its own students at night, with two deaths and many casualties.      It is interesting to also observe that in my own area Schools are still taking part in Mock Examinations - one finished just last week - in Secondary Schools, and that there has in fact been an increase in extra tuition and setting of SET, SAT, and CAT tests throughout the year.     My own grandson, having just now concluded his Mock KCSE and hoping for just a few days holiday will return to School  to sit yet another internal examination.
EXAMINATIONS and TESTS seem to take up the main part of a teacher's time.    One wonders if he or she is able to give enough serious attention to actually teaching the Syllabus.

I have always believed that any child or young person needs 'time out' from serious 'learning';   that there should always be opportunity to recover from the pressure of the day, the week, the Term. Time to just BE a child, a teenager, a son, a daughter, rather than just a means for teachers and parents to achieve some kind of 'reflected glory' in seeing the student do well.      In my own School days, admittedly a long time back in the 40's 50's and early 60's I never felt under pressure educationally. My teachers always covered their syllabus within the time allotted, achieving good results in examinations, and within reasonable learning hours - say 8a.m. to 4p.m. maximum.   All of us students loved our holidays, and enjoyed their freedom to the full - and we still managed to keep up in the Class; even me, an average student.      We did not 'grow' up too quickly either, and that was in fact a good thing, and helped the Classroom to be more manageable at all levels.    AND we still had the CANE in those days.    Could the Bible, God's living WORD actually be right when it tells us 'Spare the rod, and spoil the child', at least from the point of view of it being in itself a deterrent?
Perhaps because of this, on starting a School here in Kenya, and for the first ten years or so years of administering it, I have always been against EXTRA tuition, and also the proliferation of Tests and Examinations  compared to the time given for straightLEARNING I also confess to never having had the good will of Teachers OR Parents on either matter, so that even today both factors remain, in my opinion deterrents to progress, and to calm and orderly behaviour in our schools.

Returning to the matter of the Ministry's 2001 BAN as cited above    This Ban has just recently been reinforced and confirmed by the current Minister, Professor Kaimenyi.  Presumably this BAN is meant to be 'nation wide';  why then are some County Education Departments not willing, or able to implement this directive from Central Government?

Mr. Buhere, in his article, continues by saying:-
'Too much testing of students takes away the time meant for effective teaching and learning.'
'The 2001 Task Force on Student Discipline and Unrest, did not confine itself to administration of mock examinations to candidates preparing the KCSE;   IT ALSO made an observation to the effect that the number of tests done in the entire school system as part of continuous assessment were excessive and causes stress to the entire student body,and unnecessary expenditure by parents.'

FINALLY, Mr. Buhere says - 

'We would make the children of this country proud of all of us - all stakeholders in education -

if we adhered to the renewed ban on mock examinations, and holiday tuition,

both of which have created an inhospitable teaching and learning environment

 for the conscientious teacher, as well as for the average student

who needs a learning environment with less pressure than prevails in the current situation we have foisted upon him/her.

Needless to say I am in total agreement with him.   Though I am not hopeful our opinion will do a great deal to change the zeal of teachers and parents alike, in running our children into psychological disorders and rebellion against learning altogether.

Of course teachers want their children to produce good results in public examinations; it tends to lift up the name of the School they teach in, and also, of course, their own standing and reputation in the process.    Not a sin in itself - 

Also Parents will naturally hope and encourage their children to do well in School, in order to be more acceptable to the more lustrous Colleges and Universities, and perhaps also in the hope that their children might also outshine their neighbour's.      If the child seems slow, backward, or in some other way challenged why not increase his learning hours  they say.    Some arrive in School at 7a.m. or even earlier, and do not leave before 6p,m - and even then there are Special Tuition lessons in the evening in addition to the Homework given by their own day time teachers..      Even Holidays are not allowed to be holidays, but are seen as opportunities for a child to get, and keep, 'in front'!!    A Treadmill of misery  and often despair for the majority - just for the sake of the self aggrandisement of their elders.   This has been Kenya for the last forty years .......must it continue to be so?

Teachers, to some extent, can be controlled by good and responsible Management, but parents...?

Parents are often busier than they used to be, ALL the year long.     Both parents are often working, and sometimes even away from home.    This produces problems when children are at home.   At times, in some situations, children are actually felt to be an encumbrance to be palmed of on Day Care Centres, Boarding Schools and so on.   Sometimes no family life exists where a child can find affection, time for sharing, and appreciating the valued attributes of just being a family.     Often there is NO home to run to from the Hurley-burly, often stressful life of school; no home to find peace and freedom to be able to 'wind down' and relax.     These days such a home or family is hard to find.    Instead our children are being hounded by over anxious, over zealous parents.

'The point is not, of course, that parents or teachers should stop putting pressure on children to achieve.   The point is that we are out of balance.   Achievement has, in many cases, become the chief goal of child raising - and this intense focus threatens to make children both less happy and less moral.   The point is also that parents, schools, and communities, all have vital roles to play in curbing destructive forms of achievement pressure, and in cultivating HEALTHY notions of achievement. 

......CHILDREN  with "very high perfectionist strivings - those who see achievement failures as personal failures" are more at risk, as are children whose parents value their accomplishments more than aspects of  their character.   Ironically, this pressure is not even likely to achieve what it's intended to achieve.     Research suggests that children who are subjected to intense achievement pressure by their parents don't outperform other students.   (Assoc.for Supervision & Curriculum Development).

Generally we are seeing children growing up too fast; so fast that they are not even aware of the joys of being a child.     Indeed childhood has become a Learning Chore, more and more thrust upon the child, as if there is nothing else in life.   There is no rest from it.    What kind of men and women will many of our children become?   Will they be able to know how to bring up their own children?   Will they know how to assure their own children of their intrinsic value, regardless of their academic achievement?   Will they know how to enjoy,  and be happy with their children?     Or will they only be able to communicate the 'dullness' they themselves have achieved through their own exposure to a treadmill existence based on false promises and concepts?     Parenting and Parenthood will soon be abilities totally forgotten, unknown, and unrelated to our future society.   BUT the Bible tells us that it is the PARENT that is to bring up the child, to nurture it, and direct its thoughts; first by being taught about GOD, then by learning His Will, by reading His Word, and then by living it.     Deuteronomy 6v7 / Isaiah 28v9..
How we bring up our children - the Way we teach them at home. How much time WE, as parents, give them in friendship, company, encouragement, and family interaction conveying how much we care, and value them, matters more than ANY education.    We should not shrug off this responsibility;  we should not give it way to any School, and we should not let any school come between us and our child, to his/her detriment.      BUT the universal drift is away from this view.
Even the BASIC idea and concept of Marriage and Family is found in danger of becoming not only rare, but soon perhaps to face extinction. What then?    Anarchy?

Let us be careful not to drive our children to boredom and despair.     Remember King Solomon the Wise wrote -

'in the making of many books there is no end -

and much STUDY wearies the body.'