The Parents We Mean to Be

In The Parents We Mean to Be, Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd argues incisively that parents-not peers, not television-are the primary shapers of their children's moral lives. His original field research reveals surprising, real threats to children's moral and emotional development. Parents' intense focus on children's happiness and parental obsession with achievement has eroded their influence as moral mentors. The widespread desire of parents to be closer to their children-a wonderful trend in many respects-can also imperil children's moral growth.

Richard Weissbourd is a child and family psychologist on the faculty of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and School of Education. He is the author of The Vulnerable Child, recently named by the American School Board Journal one of the top ten education books of all time.