You cannot rely on schools to teach them this

In 45 BC, Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of Rome's greatest orators, sent his son Marcus Minor to Athens to study under a leading philosopher. Athens was like the Ivy League of the ancient world.

Instead of cherishing the opportunity, Marcus squandered it like a typical college student with excessive allowance. He was partying, spending too much money, and neglecting his studies. Hoping to change his son's behavior, Cicero wrote Marcus a letter on how to live an honorable, useful life. That letter, De Officiis (On Duties), was considered the pinnacle of moral philosophy for centuries.

Like Cicero, we all like to send our children to the best schools. There, they will study and learn to read, write, and calculate. English, mathematics, sciences, humanities, and so on. Their teachers will educate them on various subjects (assuming AI doesn't disrupt education as we know it).

But our duty as parents doesn't stop at getting them into good schools. We also have to teach them ethics, virtues, and character—like Cicero did with his letter. Even studying under a leading philosopher wasn't sufficient for his son Marcus to learn how to behave.

Cicero couldn't physically be in Athens to supervise his son, but many of us are constantly around our children, especially when they are young. We not only have to teach them how to behave; we must also model how to behave. Children rarely listen to us but they never fail to imitate. If we want them to behave well, we have to behave well ourselves.

And we cannot leave this to schools and teachers. Some schools have moral education, which is great! But this is too important to leave it up to chance. We have to own it, like Cicero did.