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By Marla Stewart Konrad
CHILDREN head back to school next month, but that doesn’t mean parents can leave all the instruction to the teachers. Children often
learn more about global compassion and justice from examples and conversations
they have at home. In an increasingly self-centred, me-first generation, it’s critical for parents to be intentional about it – if they want to raise compassionate, caring global citizens.
Some tips to help cultivate a global worldview in your child:
• Discuss world events around the dinner table, and take time to pray together
about them. The aim is not to worry your children with the burdens of the
world, but to raise their awareness of the needs God is concerned about.
• Get your children to help choose a family gift through a gift catalogue like
the one World Vision produces each year, and invite them to donate some of
their savings to the effort.
• Model involvement and empathy. Get involved in a community project that your
children can help with: collecting food for a refugee centre, cleaning or
painting a shelter, or delivering meals to elderly people who can’t get out.
• Sponsor a child from another country, and learn all you can about that country’s geography, climate, food and culture.
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• Find age-appropriate books that open children’s eyes to the wider world. World Vision’s Early Readers are a good start for young children. Visit a bookstore or library to find
others.
Marla Stewart Konrad is director of internal communications & public affairs for World Vision Canada.
September 2009
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