We all want our children to be good. Some of us remember those immortal words of Dr. Martin L.King:
But how many of us can easily recite a list of ingredients or traits a good character contains? The parochial school where I didn't send my children has a special curriculum, complete with books, worksheets, and posters on the wall, stressing thirteen positive character traits. We allow religious schools more leeway in discussing ethics, morals, and virtue than public schools. However, as parents,we shouldn't depend on our children's schools to teach them how to be good people.
You might be blessed with wise parents, grandparents, or spiritual leaders who can tell you how to raise the perfect child. If not, there is enough information out there in libraries and on the web that, if you're lucky, you might teach yourself before your children are grown. But why reinvent the wheel when you have enough work on your hands as a parent already? Here are some suggestions, taken from Ben Franklin, thought by some to be the wisest American of all time, and Rabbi Israel Salanter, the founder of the Jewish ethical movement, מוסר.
DILIGENCE
It does little good to have intelligence and creativity if one doesn't follow through on one's initiatives. A person who claims to have great ideas and never acts on them or doesn't have the stick-to-it-iveness to complete a difficult task will ultimately earn no more respect than a person who has no ideas. In fact, a person who claims to be working on an important project but isn't will look to others like a liar. As Ben Franklin put it, Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. R. Salanter said "Do what you decide to do with industriousness and enthusiasm."
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