Founder and President
of The Etiquette Factory,
a unique 3-phase etiquette learning system designed to change the world, one child at a time.
The unofficial end of summer comes on a very important holiday in our country, Labor Day. Celebrated on the first Monday of September each year, this holiday “honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the country.” (en.wikipedia.org) Parents, do our children know the meaning of this holiday and the history behind it? Do we continually take the time to teach our children how this country started, where it has come from, what principles it was founded upon and the bad and the ugly as well as the good and the beautiful of our history? How are we going to raise a patriotic generation that is dedicated to the honor and principles that this country stands for, if they do not understand it? To me, we have a duty to do all that we can to help our children appreciate this great land.
Usually, as I’m sure you have experienced, we don’t appreciate things until we truly understand them. For instance, it’s not until we become personally familiar with a person, a people, or even an entire movement, that we really start to grasp the significance of that person or experience, and how they or it has impacted our world. Labor Day is a great opportunity to teach our children about the labor movement which includes so many sacrifices on the part of Americans who were fighting for the right to prosper, to work in healthy working conditions, to be paid a fair wage, to be protected from discrimination and undue harm in the workplace and so much more. Our children today have a life free from worrying about having to work in a factory as young as 4 years old and perform jobs that would risk their lives. In order for this next generation to understand how significant they themselves are in protecting and moving our country forward to an even better place, they need to learn about the impact that individuals and groups of people from our past have made on our society.
Parents, let’s make sure we are helping our children to understand that their lives are so important, not only to our family, but to this country and this world. Children need to be inspired by stories of heroism so that they will believe that their voice and actions matter and can positively influence this world. As we teach our children the history of our nation, I hope we teach them to also reverence the symbols, the historic sights, the people who have been such an important part of our nation. I believe our society has become less patriotic about many things. I have been at historic sites in our country where lives have been lost, sacrifices made and I’ve seen parents allowing their children to run and scream and drop food on these sacred hallowed grounds. It breaks my heart when I see the American flag mishandled with such thoughtless effort. We can do better. We must do better. A lady and a gentleman are very conscious of their actions and the unspoken messages that their actions send to those around them. Let’s teach our children our history, so that they will have the love and respect towards this great nation and its people that it deserves.
