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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Can Be a Responsible, Respectful, Successful Decent Human Being, January 20, 2009
If every parent in America used this book as guide for raising their sons (and daughters, too), our out of control, celebrity-worshiping, selfish "do your own thing" culture could be turned on its head in a single generation, and America could be restored to its glory days of responsibility, respect, success and decency. I think that one thing we "culture warriors" miss when we complain that morality in this country has sunk into the gutter is that all behavior, for good or bad, is LEARNED. Television, celebrities, magazines, Hollywood, all actively teach kids (and adults) to behave like rude, self-serving monsters, for whom pleasure is the only value and "I gotta get mine -YO!" is the only meaning in life worth pursuing. But who is actively teaching the opposite these days? Who is teaching kids that a successful and meaningful life can only be built on the bedrock of enduring values like Industry, Ambition, Self Control, Self-Respect, Courtesy, Faithfulness, Courage, Duty, Honesty, Enthusiasm, Humility, Patriotism (to quote the book description above)? The Churches (we hope), surely youth organizations like the Boy Scouts or the YMCA... But how loud are those voices compared to the 24-7 blather of TV? How many of our children spend one hour a week in the church pew, and a hundred hours a week watching TV, attending public schools where the main thing kids learn is what insanely expensive mall store brand name they have to worship this week, playing "kill anything that moves" video games, and text messaging their friends while a parent or teacher is talking?
This brings me to my point, which is two-fold. First, It is not enough to bring our kids to church or enroll them in Scouting, and then to expect those moral "trickles" to counter the flood of evil coming in through TV and the Internet. As parents, WE must embody solid values in our own words and behavior, and we must teach those values to our children in a systematic way. I think a lot of "culture warriors" understand this very well, but in the end, we still fail because knowing WHAT to do is not enough - we need to know HOW to convincingly communicate values to our children, and we need a long-term plan (spanning birth to 18 years) for introducing morality, character and values systematically, in the right order, using real life examples kids can understand on their own level. YOU CAN BE A GREAT AMERICAN! provides an effective and insightful 39 step plan for teaching kids (the focus is on boys, but I see no reason why girls would not benefit equally from this book) all of the values critical to becoming a decent grown up human being, presented in a graduated age-specific order in which each year's lessons build on those learned the previous year, allowing a complex moral understanding to be gradually developed and truly internalized by adulthood. Each lesson is illustrated with a true story from the life of a great historical American, including presidents, businessmen, naturalists, artists, ministers, etc.
I am using YOU CAN BE A GREAT AMERICAN! as a guide for systematically raising my children to be responsible, respectful, successful decent human beings. I recommend this book to anyone who would like a clear and reliable plan to follow in accomplishing this same goal.
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