Raising Your Child to Be a Mensch

Rating:
Summary: A worthy topic
Review: I am sorry to see that this book is out-of-print. As an advice book for parents and for anyone who has anything to do with children it stands at the head of the pack. Unfortunately these days no awards are given for just being nice and schools no longer teach values, if they ever did. Furthermore, in our multicultural competitive environments there seems to be less of a consensus about what constitutes good, acceptable behavior. In some circumstances well brought up children may be disadvantaged in the schoolyard scene if they don't toughen up, or something of the sort. The book validates right motives and right values and encourages parents and others to make the case. The book is written by a rabbi but it isn't religious.

A mensch is a decent and caring person. There is no pattern or correct formula leading to the desired results. Only parents care about raising kind and courteous children. Our obsession with individualism and self-actualization may have detrimental effects on children. A person is not a mensch in isolation. Cheating in schools has become widespread because making it has crowded out other values. We should wonder why we are so obsessed with high achievement. It is forgotten that child rearing is really child loving. We should not be giving children the message that love is conditioned on accomplishments. Children want to be heard and understood. One cannot be an effective parent if one is frequently gone or uninvolved.

Rating:
Summary: A decent and caring person
Review: I am sorry to see that this book is out-of-print. As an advice book for parents and for anyone who has anything to do with children it stands at the head of the pack. Unfortunately these days no awards are giving for just being nice and schools no longer teach values, if they ever did. Furthermore, in our muticultural cometitive environments there seems to be less of a consensus about what constitutes good, acceptable behavior. In some circumstances well brought up children may be disadvantaged in the schooyard scene if they don't toughen up, or something of the sort. The book validates right motives and right values and encourages parents and others to make the case. The book is written by a rabbi but it isn't religious.

A mensch is a decent and caring person. There is no pattern or correct formula leading to the desired results. Only parents care about raising kind and courteous children. Our obsession with individualism and self-actualization may have detrimental effects on children. A person is not a mensch in isolation. Cheating in schools has become widespread because making it has crowded out other values. We should wonder why we are so obsessed with high achievement. It is forgotten that child rearing is really child loving. We should not be giving children the message that love is conditioned on accomplishments. children want to be heard and understood. One cannot be an effective parent if one is frequently gone or uninvolved.