I saw this article in TODAY paper pg 28 on the subject of Focus On The Family by Dr James Dobson. Very interesting article and it makes perfect sense too. In fact, I believe most parents believe in these same values but just how many parents out there including myself really approach this in our daily lives. Let's read on :

It's been said that values are not taught to children - they're caught by them. Children absorb what their mothers and fathers believe by watching them in everyday situations.
Dr Kevin Leman relates the story of Manuel Pacheco, who was the first Hispanic to be appointed president of the University of Arizona. One of 12 children, Pacheco grew up in extreme poverty on a small farm in New Mexico that his father had managed to purchase. According to Pacheco : "We didn't even get electricity in the house until 1954." But what was lacking in money was made up for in love and in values training that would later help Manuel succeed. He relates "My mother an I ran a dairy farm by ourselves from the time I was 7 years old. I'd get up at 4 o' clock in the morning, get the cows, milk them, and then get ready for school. The expectation was that it didn't matter what we were going to do. If we were going to do it, we needed to do it well."
Pacheco then went on to finance his own university education with part-time jobs.

We can all learn something about teaching values from the Pacheco family. Most importantly, they have to be modelled early. Every day, we as parents are influencing our boys and girls just by the way we approach our lives.

Why? Because those little eyes are watching us.
http://www.family.org.sg Thursday, September 14, 2006