Right from Wrong: Instilling a Sense of Integrity in Your Child

Does your child have a conscience? Is he remorseful when caught in a lie? Very high on any wise list of dreams for our children is the hope that they become people of integrity. But integrity is not simply something that happens as a result of unconditional love, healthy genes, or good luck; it emerges, if it does, because parents make it a priority to exercise influence in this arena. Combining stories of children experiencing the day-to-day struggles of growing up with compassionate, in-depth analysis and pragmatic counsel, Right From Wrong makes nurturing the qualities of integrity tangible to parents and to the others who might be actively involved in guiding a child's moral life. Through the authors' wise and discerning eyes we witness children as they experience loss or sadness, react to sibling rivalries, schoolyard violence, and academic pressures, or even while they interact at the family dinner table. The ways in which parents use listening, praise, discipline, honesty, and consequences to react to these situations reinforces a child's sense of right and wrong; from these choices readers will learn valuable lessons about a parent's power to nurture character and morality in young children.

Michael Riera, Ph.D., is one of the country's foremost authorities on understanding children and teenagers. Mike has written or cowritten five books related to teenagers and their parents. Currently, he is the head of the Brentwood School, an independent K-12 day school in Los Angeles.

Website: MikeRiera.com

Joseph Di Prisco, Ph.D., is an educator and writer who has taught for more than twenty years in public, independent, and Catholic schools, middle school through college. He lives in Berkeley, California.