Gifts We Can Give Our Children
Gifts are not just the temporal expressions for various holidays that most often are mere things we exchange. I recently spoke to Tracey Bailey, the National Teacher of the Year, about a wonderful gift he gives his eight children at home. Every week they identify various kinds of problems they feel need to be solved and they are encouraged to design and create solutions to solve the problems in their home. Wouldn’t it be great if we could give our children the kind of gifts that last a lifetime? Here is a list of other gifts I put together that you can give the children in your class or at home:
* Children need to feel they belong and have a place in their family and in their school.
* Children need adults who are ethical role models at home and school.
* Children need discipline based on personal responsibility and a set of core ethical values.
* Children need to be connected to friends, family and their community through various service projects.
* Children need to know that they are gifted and talented and that their gifts and talents are valuable.
* Children need an ethically rich home and school environment of respect and responsibility.
Children need a program on personal values including perseverance and positive mental attitude.
* Children need confidence and knowledge that they are capable people who can handle their problems at home and at school.
* Children need skills and strategies to compete in a technological world.
* Children need to participate in the democratic process in making decisions with things that are negotiable.
*Children need to know that the major problems in life are spiritual and require spiritual solutions.
*Children need a life purpose and mission to demonstrate that their lives matter.
*Children need friends that reflect their own family values.
* Children need to develop habits and follow procedures where compliance is essential.
* Children need parents, teachers and adults who accept them, believe in them and love them.