Life & Tradition Magazine

From the Editor

With this special edition, we invite you to read a sampling of articles from editions we devoted to education, parenting, and leadership topics that have great implications for our future.

Education

When Thomas Jefferson named the pursuit of happiness as one of our unalienable rights, he wasn’t thinking about the latest gadget or short-lived pleasures. Happiness, as the Founding Fathers would have understood it, was about virtue.

Here, we examine what happened with society’s shift from virtues to moral relativity; the disappearance of respect from our classrooms; and the ways that harmful concepts from communist ideology have infiltrated our institutions for higher education.

We also look at how to reinstate character and virtue in schools: through teaching art and music; through storytelling about exemplars from history and literature; and through reinstating the family as a moral beacon.

Parenting

In a world that lacks a strong moral compass, how can parents bring up children who will grow up to become men and women who value virtue and good character?

COVER IMAGE: "WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE" BY EMANUEL LEUTZE, 1851. (PUBLIC DOMAIN)

The ubiquity of digital technology has only added more complexity to an already fast-paced world. Meanwhile, the infiltration of socialist ideologies in government has exerted a large influence on education, leaving less room for parents to assert their own values. 

Parents come to see the full-grown fruit of their labors in many years’ time, but in the end, it is a joyful endeavor.

Leadership

Here, we look at the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, which was forged in life-and-death circumstances. Their hard-won wisdom can be just as applicable to the public sphere as it is to private life, to the battlefield as to oneself.

Indeed, the choices that we make on a small scale in the end might just dictate the shape of our world.

As Confucius said, “To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.”

At the end of the day, this special edition highlights not so much the nuts-and-bolts or techniques but the heart and wisdom of education, parenting, and leadership.

We hope it will prove to be an inspiration to you in your life.

Jasper Fakkert

Editor-in-Chief