Character matters

This post is education related in a broad sense of the term. For Reason.com, Tim Harford wrote an interesting column called:

Why Poor Countries Are Poor: The clues lie on a bumpy road leading to the world’s worst library

The column is about why some countries are poor and stay poor. He reports that fundamentally it isn't always a lack of an education that keeps people poor, but how trustworthy people are, is there a rule of law, and how much effort do you have to spend protecting stuff once you get stuff. He examines why Cameroon would spend money and build such a bad library.

As a homeschooling parent this was a good reminder that in addition to teaching our children the academic stuff, it is very important to teach our children to be moral. They will be happier with a good character. If our children are honest and have integrity, then people will trust them and want to be around them.

(Hat tip: reddit.com)


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