“Don’t just teach your children to read. Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.”
George Carlin, American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, and author
Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.
One-Liner Wednesday — Teach Your Children
This, That, and the Other 
Indeed, we all need to do this.
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Did that. One of the main biblical passages I emphasized was to test (question) any so-called prophet. I have one son I’m currently frustrated about because he’s an “authority” truster… except, basically, for me (I’ll just put it that way for short). He’s the one who wanted to be a soldier (or, really more definitively, officer like his grandad) since he was like twelve. He now has a very successful government-adjacent career (having joined the Air Force but had some minor health issue disqualifying him). And he has friends who are professionals, such as a doctor. Anyway, I’d say teaching this way brings out the leader in an individual (if said individual is highly intelligent); for a slower person, it might not be so great to teach rebellion.
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By the way, I think Carlin fell under the influence of “the man” late in life. I went to a booking with somone, and he was saying some shitty stuff. Carlin, “I question you.” (Nod to a lyric from the seventies).
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I saw him at a live performance a few months before he died and he seemed as sharp as ever.
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I don’t mean that he deteriorated in cognition or ability to speak. I walked out, disappointed, during the performance. I apologize that I can’t give you any specifics that I remember from before the moment I walked out. I think he got captured (but it is possible it only seemed that way because he wasn’t so good at communicating that day).
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Sigh. I probably should’ve had what I originally wrote broken into at least two paragraphs. I didn’t mean to imply the son in question is slow. He’s, legitimately in contemporary terms, a genius. All of my sons are very bright, but he’s the only one who was tested (because he was skipping his last year of high school and required to seek counseling); the testing might be a bit unfortunate, so to speak. I see him as a little full of himself, notwithstanding the fact his entirely homeschooled (officially graduating as home educated) older brother did comparably exactly as well on the SAT/ACT piece of their lives and is similarly successful [I’ll not get into regard to who employs him]. So… it’s a separate train of thought that it might not be helpful to tell a mentally struggling person to rebel.
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I ought to have said “what kind of outfit” rather than my “who…” He is not employed by family or any friend or affiliated organization/entity. I just didn’t want to say he’s not employed by the government (or anyone adjacent); the issue is not where either works. But I will say this, a pencil factory is an early idea my oldest son had for where somone might work. At the same time, I was proud of my second son knowing, early on, where he, himself, was headed; we still have time on the other fronts.
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Good idea..they must learn to read !!
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Ooo, there’s another angle. Good one.
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Excellent advice. As funny as he was, Carlin was wise.
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The was a lot of depth to his humor.
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Sage advice from a wise and funny man.
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*applaud*
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