'It takes a village to raise a child'. The education of our children is the task of the community as a whole, not merely the province of teachers and local school adminstrators.

Although, in today's world, with busy lives and over-burdened schedules, parents often leave the education of a child in the hands of a school, it is often the responsibility of the whole community to educate a child. If we believe that by sending children to a red bricked building from 8 to 2 is going to educate them, then we might be misleading ourselves. Education involves the overall development of a child. By mugging up of certain historical dates or scientific facts, we cannot classify a person as educated. Education comprises of understanding about human values; discovering various facts about the nature and environment we live in; being able to exercise our body well and excel in sports; become a part of the society and acquire skills to contribute towards the development of the society; and understanding and acquiring the existing culture and taking it forward. 

We are often influenced a lot by our brothers, sisters, peer groups, mentors, parents, and sometimes strangers. The beliefs and values of these people get reflected in us too. So for instance, if a community has a habit of people throwing garbage on the streets; a child growing up in that community will not grow up to respect the value of cleanliness and will do the same. On the contrary, in a society which values hardwork and meritocracy; future generations will also learn to do the same.Education is happening at every moment of our lives. When a small child sees people talking to him, he is learning to talk by listening to them. Similarly, when a child watches a gruesome movie on TV, he learns about violence and imitates the hero by uttering the same bad words from the movie. And it is not just the children, but even adults are influenced and educated by the society. So it becomes the responsibility of the community, to make sure that instead of exposing the tender mind of a child to gruesome violence, it is exposed to the good values in the society. 

Apart from values, people in the community teach children a lot of different skills. For instance, a child growing up in a community of sailors will be good at swimming. But community does not just teach specialised skills like swimming but also very general skills too. Many of us might have learnt cooking from our mothers and driving from our fathers. An elderly grandparent tells about various experiences of life and help in the maturity and formation of judgement about right and wrong in a child's mind. A sibling or a friend from the community encourages one to be competitive and give one's best at anything. Thus, each and every person in our life, teaches us something. 

Thus, instead of delegating the responsibility of education of young ones to schools, we ourselves as a community should take steps towards a good education. The community as a whole, needs to be tolerant and encouraging towards children. We should portray our best face to them while discouraging the ills in our society from them. Since if the children understand the evils and their bad implications, then only will they be truly educated.