Ethical Behavior - Learning the Difference between Right and Wrong

Teaching a child to be ethical is perhaps one of the many challenging tasks of parenthood. There comes a time when children lie or cheat and this is only human. It then falls upon the parent and the adults in the life of the child to instill a system or code of ethics that will help the child grow into an honest, caring, respectful adult. And this has to be done because children need to understand that ethical behavior is fundamental expectation of living in a peaceful society. Also children who learn to be empathetic and take care of others tend to develop strong interpersonal skills.  And research has shown that happy and successful people display a higher emotional quotient/ interpersonal skills.  Learning to collaborate, picking up the ability to take responsibility for oneself and others are all qualities that can be developed in early childhood. Here are a few guidelines on how to raise caring, respectful, ethical children:

Focus your efforts on building a loving and trusting relationship – children learn to be caring and loving when they have been treated that way. Giving children a stable, secure living environment, taking care of their physical and emotional needs are all forms of being loving parent. Paying attention to the interests of the child, talking about things that matter them, noticing and appreciating their efforts and achievements all go a long way in building a loving and trusting relationship with your child.  Whenever possible speak to your children in a way that will allow them to express their feelings, experiences and emotions.

Be a good mentor to child: children learn by imitation. They will listen to you if they see you practice what you preach. Are you honest with yourself and others? Do you catch yourself being selfish and unkind? Are you constantly stressed and exhausted and have little time for your family? None of us are perfect but we can make the effort to be better people and our children will follow our lead.

Show them that caring for others is a priority: Try to be part of the larger community, participate in social welfare activities, and take your child along for such events and show them that serving the community is an important task.  Talk to your children about other people’s hardships and difficulties. Then they will learn qualities of sympathy and compassion.

Set High Ethical standards: Hold your child to high ethical standards. Ensure they don’t make promises lightly. Let them honor the commitments they make. It could be something like putting away their toys after play. Or showing respect to elders. Ensure they do this regularly and they don’t slack or make excuses for themselves. This will help them understand that doing the right thing is important even if it is hard.

At Tao School, we focus on more than just an academic education. We aim to nurture and strengthen their spiritual and emotional growth. We help them think through their own ethical conflicts and teach them how to resolve issues peacefully.  We strive try to mold our students to be ethical thinkers and positive change makers in the society.