Make yourself heard

Please bear in mind that EVERYTHING begins with our treasured children. As such, it remains the adult's responsibility to teach them right from wrong so that they can be fully prepared to function in our society as loving, caring, sensitive and respectful individuals.WE are their first and most important role models and it is from US that they learn what is acceptable behavior or not.

Hence, if we OURSELVES display negative personality traits such as being nasty, uncaring, insensitive, disrespectful, prejudiced people, naturally, our children will hear us talking or see our actions and begin to emulate our behavior in society. It has been proven over and over again that if we present ourselves as a violent people, in that we use our hands or weapons against another person in order to take out our aggressions, then our children will grow up doing the very same thing in society as well.

Something deeply upsetting as well as very dangerous has been occurring within our schools with regard to the fact that our nation's young people seem to be heavily relying on a firearm for protection. Studies prove that children who watch a great deal of violence on television and in the movies at the age of 8 are more likely to commit violent crimes by the age of 30, so please keep this in mind, parents, and do what you can to limit your childrens' exposure to violence in the media. Since children learn from what they see and hear, viewing too much media violence will definitely teach them that violence is the accepted way in order to solve problems, disagreements and differences. If you would like to reduce your child's exposure from media violence, try cutting down on the media influence by deciding to spend more quality time with your children. Go out and buy a good book and then read the book either to or with your children, depending on their age. Attempt focusing their attention upon the arts, by way of having them get into drawing and writing as a means of self-expression. Once they have created something, make sure that you talk with them about it. It will be a learning experience for all involved. Take your children to a museum. Take them to a play. Introduce them to the incredible world of the personal computer! Take them on an outing with you. And PLEASE don't forget to spend quality time with them, talking about these experiences often. Within our educational system, we can offer our children peace education classes.