At the same time, making children responsible for their actions helps promote a life-view of success, accomplishment, and positive behavior. Be positive yourself. Children learn to be positive when they have parents, family members, teachers, and others who also look on the bright side of life rather than the dark side. Children constantly look to adults to see how to act. They model their behavior and attitudes after parents and other adults they spend time with and value.
Children also turn to significant adults to receive affirmation and confirmation of their actions.
For many children, what they see is literally what they are and what they become. We can all help children improve their lives day by day by helping them look at life from the positive side rather than the negative. As we help children embrace life and view it through the eyes of an optimist, we will develop our own bright side of life as well. George S. Morrison is Professor of Early Childhood Education and holder of the Velma E. Schmidt Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education at the University of North Texas. This page is the intellectual property of the Velma E. Schmidt Programs in Early Childhood Education, copyright 2000.