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Yes, this is the main thing that should be taught to kids today. Without a doubt.
A big one. I never understood what it meant when it said, "and when he is older he will not depart from it," until one day the Lord revealed to me it was about teaching children the fear of God by telling them stories of the tragic end that befell those who rejected God (read here people like Korah, Balaam, etc). The reason is because when young people become teenagers, the Devil will try to tempt them through the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life to depart from the ways of God, but if they have truly been taught to fear God, they will know in advance the dangers and the foolishness of allowing oneself to be seduced by the enemy into departing from Him.
In addition, departing from the ways of the Lord eventually leads to desperation of some sort, sort of like the prodigal son who ended up wanting the slop that the pigs were eating it had gotten so bad. But this does not happen for those who fear God and are wise enough not to go off and squander their lives on sinful lifestyles. They are always watched out for by God, and always provided for even in the hardest of times.
9 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.
11 Come, you children, listen to me.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
To “fear him” means to stand in awe of him: “Let all the earth FEAR the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world STAND IN AWE OF HIM!” (Ps 33.8).
To fear the Lord is to stand in awe of his majesty, power, wisdom, justice and mercy, especially in Christ – in his life, death and resurrection – that is, to have an exalted view of God. To see God in all his glory and then respond to him appropriately. To humble ourselves before him. To adore him.
Meh, Lol. This is a popular view these days, but it's more of a modern take on the fear of God rather than a New Testament one. Early in Acts, Ananias and Saphira lied to the Holy Spirit, and God snuffed out their lives right in front of everyone for it. In 1st Corinthians 11, Paul warned that the reason many of them were sick and some were dying was because they were causing division in the church, and God was bringing judgment upon them for it. In Chapter 5 of the same book, he commanded they excommunicate a man caught in sin, "for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord." In Revelations 3, the woman Jezebel was teaching Gnostic heresy, and He eventually warned her that if she did not repent, He was about to kill her and her entire family.
They had a different view of the fear of God back then, and a far more serious one, because the Lord was closer to His church, and as the Lord warned in His teachings, "To whom much is given, much will be required."
I don't develop my views on theology in light of what the modern church teaches very often. Their views are colored by what they see going on now. I form my theology based on what Christianity was like 2,000 years ago. I feel that is what true Christianity will eventually return to, though we are most certainly not there yet.
Food for thought. But I'd say it depends where the child is at with God in how to approach the sort of fear of God you are speaking of. It needs to be Holy Spirit lead.
DBV hasn't been posting lately. I hope he is okay. It could be because a lot of these are in the same chapter this week. I'll go to YouTube and look.