Consistency

I would like to believe I am consistent in my views, although if I am always so, then they could never evolve.  I wonder how many of us find that consistency is the most important thing, and once formed an opinion cannot be changed.  Is that a problem we have today?

There is a difference between training and education.  We send our young off to be educated, but educators it seems, for the most part, have become singular in their beliefs and foster a one sided view of a subject, not encouraging our young to see both sides of an issue, and thereby know that there is room for disagreement and debate.  Coming from this education a child always set out to build a better world in the image of the mentors, but how are they taught to question and decide for themselves?  At one point in my life I taught air navigation to new students.  Each of us understood we were trainers and not educators.  The difference?  We were teaching a skill, not opening a mind to think and develop its own ideas.  It appears to me that educators of today may have closed their minds and see themselves as trainers rather than what they should be, people who help the young to think for themselves.  It would be nice to see some different consistency in education.

That society changes is, I think, an absolute.   Each generation builds and expands on the progress made by their parents, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  For example, my parents were children of the depression and were shaped by those experiences.  They were focused on providing for the family, were not afraid to use a belt to discipline, and took complete responsibility for their work.  Well kind of, since the family was a bit dysfunctional, and my father was an alcoholic, there were some deviations to the stereotype family.  What I saw in my upbringing was a lack of consistency.  One day my father would say one thing, the next there would be regret and he would say or do something completely different.

From the lesson’s of my youth I attempted to be a different (and by inference better) parent.  At the same time I was not opposed to occasionally employing corporal punishment when I thought it necessary.  I still believe this may, in some cases, be warranted, but clearly I am in a minority and I suspect the use of “time-outs” is viewed as the current "Best Way."  This doesn’t mean I am right; in fact I probably am not.  Will my grand children grow up to understand their roles in society and be productive because of time outs?  Only time will tell.  But one thing I am absolutely certain of is that a parent must be consistent.  If he or she tells a child that something will happen, it has to be done just as the parent says it will.  Children need structure and in that structure find the confidence to grow.

So at the end of the day I return to the central question is being consistent in your beliefs a good thing or does it box you into only seeing one side of a problem?  When should we strive for consistency and when must we abandon it?

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Ralph Waldo Emerson