Growing up with values

This is one short article that I would say is most striking to me - the truth of it cannot be overvalued, and more so, underestimated. Our kids are learning more from what we do, either separately or together, than from what we say. The learning process is complicated even more when we send mixed signals, saying one thing, and doing another.

May we be worthy parents, in words and in deed. (What do you know, today is my father's birthday, and he is now 85 years old)

Read on...
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By Dr James Dobson

It has been said that values are not taught to children – they’re caught by them. Children absorb what their mothers and fathers believe by watching them in everyday situations.

Dr Kevin Leman relates the story of Mr Manuel Pacheco, who was the first Hispanic to be appointed president of the University of Arizona. One of 12 children, Mr Pacheco grew up in extreme poverty on a small farm in New Mexico that his father had managed to purchase. Said Mr Pacheco: “We didn’t even get electricity in the house until 1954.”

But what was lacking in money was made up for in love and in values training that would later help him succeed. He said: “My mother and I ran a dairy farm by ourselves from the time I was seven years old. I’d get up at four o’clock in the morning, get the cows, milk them, and then get ready for school. The expectation was that it didn’t matter what we were going to do. If we were going to do it, we needed to do it well.”

Mr Pacheco then went on to finance his own university education with part-time jobs.

We can all learn something about teaching values from the Pacheco family. Most importantly, they have to be modelled early. Every day, we as parents are influencing our boys and girls just by the way we approach our lives. Why? Because those little eyes are watching us.


From TODAY, Voices - Tuesday, 11-May-2010
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