This verse may be read in two different ways, one a modern reading, and the other a reading in the ancient context.
Modern reading: It is the duty of parents to teach their children well. It is our responsibility to care for our children, to provide for them the necessities of life, defined here as food and clothing. It is also our responsibility to teach them the laws of God. We are to teach them to avoid fights and quarrels. Of course this would not be small spats, but serious divisive quarrels, for these come of the devil and serve to divide families.
Ancient context: In the first discourse, Benjamin made a point to contrast infants and men. That earlier division continues here. This verse concentrates on the children, verse 16 will emphasize the adults (“ye yourselves”). The admonition to clothe and feed our children falls into the context of the past economic disparities in their society. The first responsibility is to the children of the family – they must be clothed and fed. By implication, this is “their due.”
When Benjamin enjoins the parents to teach their children the laws of God, this is in direct contrast to those parents who might have taught the “other religion” to their children. The unity of the people depends upon the unity of their religion. They must all teach the same laws. We must remember here that the ancient world did not make distinctions between politics and religion. The laws of God are the laws of this people. Any other laws teach division, not unity.
In this context, the past internal quarrels must be banished. Therefore the children are to be taught not to quarrel and fight. Note that quarreling and fighting are specifically connected with the evil spirit, that same evil spirit against which Benjamin preached in his earlier discourse. The quarrels and fights are not family squabbles, but the kind of contentions that have ripped this people apart, with some of their families and friends dissenting away to the Lamanites. Earlier, Benjamin spoke against any who would choose to follow the “evil spirit” and declared them to be in open rebellion against God (and the people of God). Here he forbids teaching those concepts to the children, stopping the contentions at this generation, and not passing them to the next.