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character strengths

Back-to-school articles

Best Back-to-School Articles for Parents: 2023

Back-to-school is always a time when parents and teachers revisit what is important for children and how to best support their positive development. This popular list of back-to-school articles, started in 2012, has been updated for the 2023-24 school year. Some articles focus on the challenges of schooling during the […]

Compass-Inspired
skeptic teenager

Skeptic or Cynic? How to Model Positive Skepticism to Children

Skeptics has been given a bad rap in modern society. Why? Because skepticism is often confused with cynicism. Let’s explore the distinctions and why it’s important to teach children the art of becoming a skeptic. A cynic distrusts most information they see or hear, particularly when it challenges their own […]

Curiosity
playing sports for your child

Playing Sports: Is it Right for Your Child?

Whether your child is playing sports now or considering participating in a sport, you likely have an opinion about the value of sports in children’s lives. You may have your own positive or negative experiences with sports as a child. The social, emotional, and physical benefits of playing sports in […]

Resilience
Tackling poverty through service-learning

Service-Learning Fosters Lifelong Development

When I was a teenager, we didn’t have a term for service-learning. There were opportunities to volunteer in our communities but not many people thought about the lifelong value of such experiences. As I reflect on my early volunteer experiences, I know for certain that my life was changed as […]

Empathy
Character traits for kids

Character Traits for Kids and How Families Nurture Them

Parents and families play key roles in developing character traits for kids. Parents who create positive home learning environments also understand that fostering character traits for kids is as important as academics and homework. They know that family values get passed from one generation to the next.  But how to instill values […]

Self-Awareness

Good Grades May Harm Student Health

Good grades are positive, right? The answer is not as straightforward as you might imagine. Of course, good grades can be terrific. That is, unless the stress of getting them causes children to feel unworthy or fail to develop abilities that matter much more than grades. Even for children who […]

Compass-Inspired
positive parenting

Positive Parenting: Powerful Ways to Raise Healthy Kids

The term positive parenting has become more widespread as the practice of parenting becomes influenced by research in the new scientific field of positive psychology. What is positive parenting? Positive parenting focuses on parenting practices that nurture the development of children’s core internal strengths. Rather than focusing on kids’ weaknesses […]

Compass-Inspired
Role models influence youth

How Role Models Influence Youth Strategies for Success

As teenagers grow to young adulthood, who are their role models? Who do they emulate? Why? One of the most popular articles at Roots of Action is What is a Role Model? Five Qualities that Matter to Teens. Collected from my research on highly successfully, civically-engaged young people, it describes […]

Resourcefulness
Character Strengths: What Are They and Why They Matter? | Roots of Action

Character Strengths: What Are They and Why They Matter?

What are character strengths? What meaningful role does character play in child and adult development? It is widely acknowledged that character –not beauty, high test scores, or wealth–account for life satisfaction and well-being. Derived from the field of positive psychology, the term character strengths has become synonymous with a group […]

Resilience
Character Education: What Good Teachers Do Best | Roots of Action

Character Education: What Good Teachers Do Best

Good teachers understand that character education is at least half their jobs.  While teachers are hired to develop children’s skills and abilities in academics like reading, writing, history, geography, and math, there is a lot more going on in the classroom than meets the eye. Opportunities abound for students to […]

Integrity