True Heroes of Today

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Recommended: The role of family in youth development

Although our children idolize media and sports figures today, and may classify them as heroes, it is truly the parents, family members, teachers, friends, and other adult influences that are the true heroes in the lives of children. Adults need to realize the impact they have on the lives, and minds, and behaviors of their children, and start giving them positivity, and admirable qualities, and actions to reflect.
Whether or not adults can see it, they are the major influences in the lives of children. Although children do look up to media and sports figures, it is those that have direct interaction, and time spent with those they love and look up to on a daily basis that they truly learn from and mold themselves around based on the adult influences in their lives. That being said this makes parents, and family members the true heroes in their lives. Parents want their children to develop family values, and to be kind, caring and courteous, which are not always attributes that the media, and sports figures possess, (Holub, Tisak, & Mullins, 2008) Many studies have been developed to determine who children tend to idolize most, and describe as their heroes, and most children associate the word hero with someone they know personally, and not someone in the media. Anderson, and Cavallaro state, "70 percent of the African American and 64 percent of the White children chose people they knew as heroes. In contrast, only 35 percent of the Asian American kids and 49 percent of the Latino kids named people they knew." (2002) These numbers are huge, and show that adults are truly major influences in who children view as heroes. As a society, everyone needs to realize the impact that is made by the choices that are...

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... Kristin J.; Cavallaro, Donna (2002). Parents or pop culture? Children’s heroes and role models. Childhood Education, v78 n3 p161-68. (EJ650989), Database: ERIC
Graebner, William (2013). The man in the water: The politics of the American hero, 1970-1985. Historian. Fall2013, Vol. 75 Issue 3, p517-543. 27p. DOI: 10.1111/hisn.12015.
Holub, Shayla; Tisak, Maria; Mullins, David. Gender difference in children’s hero attributions: Personal hero choices and evaluations of typical male and female heroes. Sex Roles, Apr2008, Vol. 58 Issue 7/8, p567-578, 12p, 3 Charts, 4 Graphs. Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media B.V.
Oshea, Sarah, Stone, Kathy. The hero's journey: Stories of women returning to education. International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, Mar2014, Vol. 5 Issue 1, p79-91, 13p. Publisher: Queensland University of Technology.

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