Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues That Teach Kids to Do the Right Thing

No parenting book I know of offers so many practical insights, workable strategies, and inspiring stories, books, videos, andother family-friendly resources for intentionally teaching thesecrucial character strengths. (from the foreword by Thomas Lickona, author, Raising Good Children)

Provides a much-needed antidote to the waves of incivility, intolerance, and insensitivity sweeping through our nation's youthculture. Dr. Michele Borba offers parents a treasure trove of ideasfor building the most neglected intelligence around: our kids'moral intelligence. I'd like to see a copy of this book in everyhome across America! (Thomas Armstrong, author, 7 Kinds of Smart, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, and Awakening Your Child'sNatural Genius)

If you care about the future of our children and our nation, read this important book! Perfectly balancing cutting-edge researchwith practical strategies, engaging anecdotes and wise insights, Michele Borba shows us how to do what really matters most-how tohelp our kids become good and caring human beings. (Jack Canfield, coauthor, Chicken Soup for the Parent's Soul, Chicken Soup for theMother's Soul, and Chicken Soup for the Father's Soul)

This brilliant book will help anyone who lives or works withchildren build the skills and moral values that make cruel, selfish, and destructive behavior unthinkable. This book will savelives. (Jane Bluestein, author, Creating Emotionally Safe Schoolsand Parents, Teens and Boundaries: How to Draw the Line)

Michele Borba is an inspiring educator, an experienced parent, and a terrific writer. She has identified the core issues forparenting moral kids and presented them with passion, wit, andenormous practicality. Her new book gives us solid empiricalresearch but also specific day-to-day activities that will reallymake a difference in our children's lives. (Michael Gurian author, Boys and Girls Learn Differently, The Wonder of Boys, The Good Sonand A Fine Young Man)

While many people in public life decry the lack of characterand moral development among our kids, few take this concernfurther, into the realm of practical steps to address the issue inthe lives of real children and youth. Michele Borba has done so inher book Building Moral Intelligence. As one whose work takes himinto prisons to interview kids who kill, I can testify to the needfor adults to cultivate moral intelligence-and the consequenceswhen we don't. This book is a tool for parents to use in thestruggle. (James Garbarino, author, Lost Boys: Why Our Sons TurnViolent and How We Can Save Them)

This smart and helpful book integrates much of what we knowabout raising moral children. I especially like the book'sconstructive way of pulling together a wide range of theoreticalapproaches and coming up with a wealth of sensible child-rearingtips. (William Damon, professor and director, Stanford UniversityCenter on Adolescence)

An important book, beautifully researched and highlyreadable-one that will surely help parents raise a generation ofmore peaceful, ethical children. I give this book my highestrecommendation. (Naomi Drew, author, Peaceful Parents, PeacefulKids)

This how-to guide to teaching children moral intelligence fillsa deep need. It is practical, filled with excellent activities, andbased on solid research. (Kevin Ryan, director emeritus, BostonUniversity Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character)

This is perhaps the best written guide for parents andeducators concerned with the deep character and moral intelligenceof their children or students. It is wise, literate, and valuable. (Peter Scharf, director, Center for Society, Law and Justice at theUniversity of New Orleans and author, Growing Up Moral)

Michele Borba articulates the core traits that build andpromote responsible citizenship among the young and old alike.Creating safe schools begins with responsible behavior. Dr. Borbaexplains in clear, concise, and effective ways how to make thathappen. Her book is a 'must read' for parents, educators, andcommunity leaders. (Ronald D. Stephens, executive director, National School Safety Center)

(Written) with confident authority and providing good, currentreferences...The book is...similar to Borba's own Parents Do Make aDifference (Jossey-Bass, 1999)...this is not a quick fix but a wayof living...if more people mastered these traits, the world wouldbe a different and better place. Recommended for larger publiclibraries. (Library Journal, July 2001)

Television, games, the Internet, peers and other forces shapechildren's morality, but consultant and educator Borba (Parents DoMake a Difference) argues that it is parents who provide the mostenduring modeling and instruction. Kids, she asserts, should befortified against the onslaught of increasingly negative culturalinfluences--violent video games, nasty music lyrics--by parentalinvolvement and guidance. Designed as a guide for parents andcaregivers of children from three to 15 years old, the bookdescribes the epidemic deficiency in the moral development ofAmerican kids and outlines seven virtues (Empathy, Conscience, Self-Control, Respect, Kindness, Tolerance and Fairness) to beengendered in children. Devoting an identically designed chapterfor each virtue, she defines the virtue in accessible and secularlanguage. She then provides a test for parents to assess theirchildren and offers practical actions parents can take on a dailybasis. Throughout, her tone is pragmatic and optimistic. Sheadvises parents to make sure they are providing a moral examplethat they would want their children to follow--in other words, watch their own behavior. She advises parents to be direct abouttheir own moral beliefs and encourage specific virtuous behaviors.Borba concludes the book with a helpful resources list. A packedstorehouse, this helpful, informative and hopeful book will bedog-eared over years of consultation. (July)
Forecast: Many reader will recognize Borba's name; as an expert on bullying, she makes frequent TV appearances, and on Oprah's MomOnline she is the Moral Intelligence Pro. This book is timely;given public debates on media violence, and the prevention ofjuvenile crime, it's like to be widely read and referenced(Publishers Weekly, July 2, 2001)