This Is Sparta! (Not)

     If you think about it, to tell a child to take the path of kindness and selflessness is asking a child to suffer humiliation, setbacks and gauranteed frustration.  To love thy neighbor as thyself is a hard road to travel.   Sometimes I feel like teaching my kids to be polite, respectful and kind is only going to hinder their success in life.  It would probably be better, at least in the short term, to teach them to be wisely rude, opportunistically disrespectful and cunningly unkind (meaning, only be nice when people are looking).  It would probably be wiser to train my kids like the ancient Spartans taught their children.

      I can sympathize with the ancient Spartan approach to child rearing.  The Spartans, who taught their kids from early on to be warriors, notoriously trained their young children to fight.  Considering the world we are living in, that sounds about right.  Send them out to fight the snow wolf to squash their fears and expose them to the cold elements to callous their tender hearts. Teach them to be mean and biting because that is the wicked world they will live in. 

      For this world, as Machiavelli taught (to be ruthless. clever and cunning), and to be like Nietzsche’s survival of the fittest, ends justify the means, superman, we should probably teach our kids to raise the Spartan sword, grit their feral teeth, and take what they want, for after all, it’s a dog eat dog world.  The only response in my heart, against this Spartan wisdom comes from someone who tells me to teach my kids to love their neighbor as themselves.  

      But, to ask a child to travel this road with it’s dead ends, flat tires and foggy morning pile ups is like sending them into a horrific battle zone, full of clanging armor, swords and darkness when they are only armed with a lamp and a loaf of bread.   But, that is what they are to do.  They are called to be a light in a dark, mean world.  I want my kids to be like Jesus, not like the guy in that 300 video.  They are called to be a beacon of hope and peace, not vessels of fear and conquest.  But when I count the cost of what that actually means, it’s troubling.  They may be mocked, scoffed at and spit on.  Bringing light to a dark world of sword clanging Spartans, Cretins and Barbarians may not be popular.  It's much "cooler" to yell and swing a sword than to speak softly and hand out bread.