EDITORIAL: Investment in the future

   “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
— Benjamin Franklin 
    It’s that time of year again, time for students to head back to the classroom to continue their investment in their — and the country’s — future.
   In South Brunswick, about 9,000 students were scheduled to make their way to the district’s 10 schools today, to begin a 10-month journey of learning. For some — about 600 or so — it will be their final year in South Brunswick; for an equal number, it will be their first.
   But all of them will be engaging in what G.K. Chesterton, the English philosopher, called “the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”
   Education, however, is not just a process involving students and teachers. It also involves parents, because it is parents who set the foundation upon which the educator builds.
   That’s why it is important that parents be involved with their children’s schooling. While not every parent can volunteer at their child’s school or join the PTA, every parent can and should take an interest in their child’s school work. Parents need to talk with teachers and administrators, attend school functions — back-to-school nights, family picnics, art exhibits, etc. — and, most importantly, take an active interest in what their children are learning. Parents need to make sure that their children are doing their homework and help them when they can. They need to show their children that learning is important by being a part of their children’s learning process.
   We know this is time-consuming, but it is necessary.
   Most of all, however, we encourage parents to follow John Dewey’s dictum:
   ”Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself.”