Chapter Ten: Bringing it Home
“But, nowadays, so long as a home is within reach of a wireless signal, every cubic inch of that home’s airspace is infiltrated with potentially destructive messages and images that can steal away the identities—particularly the moral identities—of young people.”
Bringing it home is a suitable theme for this final chapter and an opportunity for Covey to reflect on the role of the most sought after stakeholders in the village--the parents.
Parent buy in to any youth program is a challenge that has to be tackled. Covey does not give the reader any magic formulas for engaging parents, but he does suggest that parents will definitely pay attention when their children bring home new and improved behaviors. Covey has a wealth of evidence to prove that leadership development via the 7 Habits does indeed bring about a behavior change. So, school leadership teams should definitely be prepared to train parents as a part of their strategy.
The training for parents, as for other stakeholders, should be rooted in a belief that--”if you treat all students as if they are gifted, and you always look at them through the lens of being gifted in at least some aspect, they will rise to that level of expectation.”
Covey offers several questions that should be raised at parent trainings, as well as five watchwords that will align the parents with other stakeholders.
Questions to Consider
“But, nowadays, so long as a home is within reach of a wireless signal, every cubic inch of that home’s airspace is infiltrated with potentially destructive messages and images that can steal away the identities—particularly the moral identities—of young people.”
Bringing it home is a suitable theme for this final chapter and an opportunity for Covey to reflect on the role of the most sought after stakeholders in the village--the parents.
Parent buy in to any youth program is a challenge that has to be tackled. Covey does not give the reader any magic formulas for engaging parents, but he does suggest that parents will definitely pay attention when their children bring home new and improved behaviors. Covey has a wealth of evidence to prove that leadership development via the 7 Habits does indeed bring about a behavior change. So, school leadership teams should definitely be prepared to train parents as a part of their strategy.
The training for parents, as for other stakeholders, should be rooted in a belief that--”if you treat all students as if they are gifted, and you always look at them through the lens of being gifted in at least some aspect, they will rise to that level of expectation.”
Covey offers several questions that should be raised at parent trainings, as well as five watchwords that will align the parents with other stakeholders.
Questions to Consider
- “What gifts does this child possess naturally?
- What talents or character traits does this child possess that if nurtured a little more could turn into gifts?
- What gifts, if any, did this child possess at an early age that have since been muted by his or her cultural DNA?
- What have I said to this child within the past three days that has communicated my recognition of his or her gifts?
- What will I say to her or him within the next twenty-four hours that will communicate my recognition of and admiration for those gifts?”