Читать книгу Yes, Please. Thanks!: Teaching Children of All Ages Manners, Respect and Social Skills for Life - Penny Palmano - Страница 7

When Penny told me of her intention to write a book on children’s manners and respect, I immediately thought of her son’s progress through my school. If anyone better typified what can be done with good manners and respect then I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing them yet. So, a little like a top chef giving advice on recipes, there is the instinctive confidence in the fact that Penny knows what she is talking about (and she is also a great cook!). The premise of this book is the desire to show parents what can be achieved, if they are willing to invest a little time and a great deal of consistency in the upbringing of their children. Parenting skills have noticeably declined over the years, as is evident in some of the behaviour witnessed in school, where seemingly the only guidance children have comes from the environment that surrounds them for their time at school. While the much more relaxed relationships between adults and children is to be commended and welcomed, the lack in many young children of the basic tenets of good manners and respect is highly regrettable. They are surrounded by poor examples in the society in which they live. Much of the television they watch or the music they listen to and even their heroes and idols offer them scant guidance as to how best to behave, and the void that has opened between what used to be taken for granted and what is now accepted is a worrying trend.

The beauty of this book is there is something for everyone and there should be no fixed point at which people reading it need to start. Much will come down to personal preference and the kind of children that you want to raise. However, if good manners and respect still mean something to you, the sagacity of the following chapters will provide you with an invaluable resource as you embark on the most difficult and rewarding journey that any adult can take – namely the fostering of a partnership with your offspring that is abiding and enriching and equips them with life skills that will shape and mark them as worthy individuals.

Keith Young

HEADMASTER

WESTBROOK HAY SCHOOL,

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, HERTS.