Just Because It's Not Wrong Doesn't Make It Right: Teaching Kids To Think And Act Ethically

“If we are to raise kids who can think and act ethically, we don’t begin with the thinking or the acting. We begin with caring.” —Barbara Coloroso

In her now-classic kids are worth it! , Barbara Coloroso offered solid advice and practical parenting techniques that above all preserved the dignity of both parent and child. Coloroso’s underlying parenting vision ascribes to parents the responsibility to teach the next generation how to think, not just what to think, so that they may grow into the best people they can be.

Now, in this groundbreaking new book—a natural extension and a profound deepening of her original vision—Coloroso shows parents how to nurture their children’s ethical lives, from preschool through adolescence.

There can be no more necessary book for our times.

We live in a world where children are so often given the message that the ends justify the means; where harmful, even violent behavior—in families, in communities, and around the world—goes unnoticed, unmitigated, and often unrepented; where children’s ethical education can come from a T-shirt slogan or bumper sticker, an Internet site, or the evening news; where rigid moral absolutism or moral relativism has replaced true ethical thinking. In a world such as ours, Just Because It’s Not Wrong Doesn’t Make It Right is an essential tool.

Beginning with the idea that it is in us to care that we are born with an innate capacity for compassion and caring, Coloroso shows parents how to nurture and guide children’s ethical lives from toddlerhood through the teen years using everyday situations at home, at school, in social settings, and in the world at large.

Rich in advice and anecdotes, Just Because It’s Not Wrong Doesn’t Make It Right offers no less than an ethical vision, one rooted in deep caring, by which we and succeeding generations may not only live, but thrive.