It is said that what a child sees and hears when he is young, in his home and community is how he believes the world to be. If he sees and watches violent television programs, he will think that violence is very normal. If he hears his parents using inappropriate language, he will think that it is totally normal and acceptable to speak in this manner. Even if you tell him differently, what he sees and hears around him will define how he sees the world.

Thus, it is important to control the child’s environment and the messages they are receiving on a regular basis. For this reason parents are so diligent in controlling the types of programs children watch and the language used around them.

However, as important as it is to shelter the child from negative input when they are young it is potentially even more important to proactively infuse the child with positive messages and lessons that would be valuable for them through their life. The child’s character is developed during early childhood, and at The Brook Academy we use proactive measures to instill strong values in our students. Some of the values we focus on are:

Joy – A child should be encouraged to have a happy and joyful disposition; smile and laugh often, enjoy things whole heartedly, crave the good things in life. We all know how tough life is, he’ll get to that eventually, better for him to get to it with an overall sense that the good, the fun, the happy is the great reward of life.

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

Kindness – Teaching a child to be kind is not a novel idea; we all certainly try to do it every day. But there is a difference between teaching children to be kind when they can and teaching children to seek out opportunities for kindness. Teaching a child to seek opportunities to help others directs them to focus on the needs and sensitivities of those around him; to look for opportunities to add value and to contribute to the world.

“The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.” Albert Einstein

Love of Work – Work is something we all have to do for most of our lives. We would be benefitting the child greatly to teach them to enjoy the doing of the work and to be proud of the results. When they are young, much of their work is learning and it is easy for us to teach them to derive joy from learning new things and the rewards of hard work. If this is something that we show that we love to do and we allow them to participate and we praise them for it, even in things as simple as sweeping the floor, they will learn that it is a worthwhile activity.

“The most important motive for work in the school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community”. – Einstein