Gifts for children

Corning from parents that Immigrated from Sicily and who worked hard all their lives, I sometimes reflect on the gifts that my parents gave my brother, sister and me as children. The gifts were not money nor property. They instilled in us a desire to get an education coupled with a fierce resolution to succeed at anything we attempted in life.

When my father arrived in America, he had no schooling and no skills, so he found a job in a small bakery shop washing baking pans, sweeping the floor and doing other chores. Over the years he reamed how to bake and was finally able to open up his own bakery.

My mother, also without schooling and no skills, found a job in a clothing factory sewing garments. She taught herself how to sew well until she was hired as a seamstress in a ladies fashion store.
Later she joined my father in their small bakery. He would bake and she would operate the store.

I cannot recall my father or mother ever being absent from work unless they were so sick that it was almost impossible to rise from their bed. They were thrifty with their earnings, yet provided a decent home and plenty of food for all of us. They lived what they taught us.

As my sister, brother and I shared their love, we somehow picked up their wishes that we obtain a good education and their determination to succeed. My brother became an oral surgeon. After raising two daughters, my sister, finally received her Bachelors of Arts degree at age 59. Today at 78 years old she is still attending art courses studying to be a painter. After receiving my Masters degree and after twelve years of teaching, I became a businessman. But why bore you with my personal life?

As I work and live in the CNMI, I am confounded as to what gifts are we giving to our children? What attitudes are we inculcating in their minds? When I learn that about 29 % of junior high students never reach high school, and when out of those that do enter high school about 28% never graduate, I wonder what happened to them to cause such a drastic action as to dropout at such an early age? From a graduating class of about 300 students, only about 25% go on to secondary schools. Where are the rest? What is in store for them in the marketplace?

The vast majority of young people still strive to become government employees for life. To enter government employment is the fulfillment of their dreams. They know that after gliding through 20 years of subservient labor, they will receive a pension and fade into the limelight.
Where is the motivation, the moxie to make something of their lives? Where are we parents during this time?

The few that do go on to college shamelessly beg for scholarship money without proving that they merit it. I don’t wish to fault these students, but I do fault the politicians who destroy the students initiative or resourcefulness to find their own way through life.

Is it any wonder that not many residents of the CNMI have a determination to succeed? Instead many put their palms out and expect handouts. We even give out free land called homesteads. With all the freebies and government employment why would any young person be foolish enough to consider challenging and productive employment?

No, I am not bitter. Instead I am sad that we so insensitively give the wrong gifts to our children. What gifts are you giving to your children?