"it starts at home"?
So much of what is needed in young people here HAS TO come from the family/home.
Here's my list of places to start:
1. personal responsibility (have them clean their own rooms, help mom make dinner, wash dad's car...)
2. work ethic/working hard (get a summer job or internship, or do some community service)
3. strengthening the will to act morally (point out to them examples of this, and show that it's unacceptable)
4. taking pride in a job well done, not because you get a reward for doing it (quit giving out prizes everytime they do something normal that is expected of them)
5. natural consequences (if they mess up, don't save their butts; let them take their licks -- it's a good experience for them)
6. the difference between donating money or time (so much of charity work here isn't a real sacrifice for anyone because people simply write out a check; they'd learn more if they actually volunteered their time or gave away their old toys to the orphanage or cooked a meal for some poor people)
7. creating a sense of civic duty
8. READING -- this is the ONE thing that will pay off for them a thousand times over...if only parents would model this at home and show them the importance of reading for pleasure, for knowledge, for personal improvement...
Re: school and things that students need to learn better there (some of these can also be reinforced at home too):
1. critical thinking skills
2. thinking outside the box
3. awareness and appreciation of other points of view
4. academic stamina (learning to struggle with things and being okay with that, not giving up when things get difficult or expecting the teacher or someone else to give you the answer or make it easier for you)
5. the importance of practice if you want to get better at something
6. evaluating resources (for bias, assumptions, facts, values, loaded language, statistics, omissions, for confusion between causation and association)
7. striving to constantly improve one's abilities, not being satisfied with "good enough"
8. recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses, and using that knowledge accordingly
"Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise."
-- Maya Angelou
"it starts at home"?
So much of what is needed in young people here HAS TO come from the family/home.
Here's my list of places to start:
1. personal responsibility (have them clean their own rooms, help mom make dinner, wash dad's car...)
2. work ethic/working hard (get a summer job or internship, or do some community service)
3. strengthening the will to act morally (point out to them examples of this, and show that it's unacceptable)
4. taking pride in a job well done, not because you get a reward for doing it (quit giving out prizes everytime they do something normal that is expected of them)
5. natural consequences (if they mess up, don't save their butts; let them take their licks -- it's a good experience for them)
6. the difference between donating money or time (so much of charity work here isn't a real sacrifice for anyone because people simply write out a check; they'd learn more if they actually volunteered their time or gave away their old toys to the orphanage or cooked a meal for some poor people)
7. creating a sense of civic duty
8. READING -- this is the ONE thing that will pay off for them a thousand times over...if only parents would model this at home and show them the importance of reading for pleasure, for knowledge, for personal improvement...
Re: school and things that students need to learn better there (some of these can also be reinforced at home too):
1. critical thinking skills
2. thinking outside the box
3. awareness and appreciation of other points of view
4. academic stamina (learning to struggle with things and being okay with that, not giving up when things get difficult or expecting the teacher or someone else to give you the answer or make it easier for you)
5. the importance of practice if you want to get better at something
6. evaluating resources (for bias, assumptions, facts, values, loaded language, statistics, omissions, for confusion between causation and association)
7. striving to constantly improve one's abilities, not being satisfied with "good enough"
8. recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses, and using that knowledge accordingly
"Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise."
-- Maya Angelou