The Family Virtues Guide: Simple Ways to Bring Out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves

When you witness a small child haul off and smack another child unprovoked, the theory of innate morality seems to lose all validity. Moral education has always been the domain of religion, and Linda Kavelin Popov has culled 52 universal virtues from the world's religions, one for each week of the year. The resulting Family Values Guide is a workbook for the moral education of children that transcends differences of religion or culture. Each week, the book suggests, a family should gather to discuss a different virtue from the book, such as love, generosity, or patience, and the parents then emphasize the virtue for the following days, capitalizing on appropriate moments for education. Contrary to some pop psychology authors, Popov insists that reasonable boundaries be established and maintained for children and that appropriate punishment be meted out when boundaries are crossed. Psychotherapist and president of the Family Values Project, Popov sees the language of values as the key to recognizing their importance in social interaction, and encourages parents to add other values to their own list.