Good Kids, Tough Choices: How Parents Can Help Their Children Do the Right Thing

Kidder (How Good People Make Tough Choices), founder and president of the Institute for Global Ethics, a nonprofit organization that promotes character and integrity in corporations and other groups, focuses on parenting issues in his latest volume on the subject of ethics. Kidder treats children from birth to age 23, with age-appropriate chapters that address such questions as how to respond when children lie or steal, how kids can overcome selfishness, and how to react when a child breaks school rules. Arguing that "ethical fitness" can be taught and requires the same kind of long-term commitment as physical fitness, Kidder considers common ethical challenges through the three "lenses" of knowing what's right, making tough choices, and standing for conscience. Using "extended narratives" developed from seminars and interviews, the author dissects a range of moral dilemmas and explains how, through discourse and conversation, modeling and mentoring, and practice and persistence, parents can help kids develop moral courage and make ethical decisions. Kidder maintains that good moral habits can be taught and developed when parents are willing to make a commitment to communicate and stay involved. (Oct.)