By Dawn Tedrow, MSW, LCSW, C-DBT – February 26, 2025 –
As a parent, I tried to raise my children with certain core values and principles that are important to our family, in hopes that they would model these values when I was not around. This did not come about easily, and I had to ask myself some difficult questions. “How do I want others to see my children?” I wanted people to think of my kids as kind, honest, and respectful. “What is going to motivate my children to remember our values and act accordingly?” It was important that my children feel empathy and have the courage to stick up for themselves and others.
What values and behaviors do teachers want to see from children in their classroom? Let’s take a moment to look at kindness, honesty, and respect and how these values can motivate your child to have better relationships with peers and teachers at school.
Kindness is smiling at someone or returning something they dropped. It is the act of doing something just because it makes your heart happy. You feel good about doing it without expecting anything in return. It also helps foster empathy so that your child begins to understand how others feel about things.
Honesty is another important value, because it helps teach the child to be truthful about things even if it leads to an undesired outcome. This helps improve their self-esteem and develop deeper connections with people in their lives. Honesty is a great way to teach your child about responsibility and how to be accountable for their actions.
It’s important to teach children to respect not only themselves, but others in their family and community – no matter their age, race, job, etc. Everyone deserves to be treated with the utmost respect and dignity, no matter who they are.
Our children have a lot of peer influences that may not agree with these values; however, after focusing on these three values, you will also be fostering them to have the courage to make the right decision and treat someone appropriately despite what their friends may think.
Have open and honest conversations with your child around the dinner table about how their friends behave and how they would do things differently. This should be met with zero judgement. Give your child the opportunity to come up with their own solutions, using a lot of praise for good answers. These values will help your child understand that you truly respect their teacher and agree with the rules in their classroom. Modeling this respect will encourage and motivate them to do better in school so you and their teacher will be proud of them. Be sure to praise them for having the courage to continue when things are difficult, as this will help them learn to persevere.