Oprah Winfrey, in her address to Harvard University graduates, as the Boston Globe reported a couple of weeks ago, called for each of them to develop their moral-emotional GPS. An excellent metaphor!
I like the phrase ‘global positioning system’ because it references the whole world. We do after all live together on this one earth.
The ‘moral-emotional’ element I like even more, as it references parents’ two essential spheres of influence. Of course since our children copy what we do — more often than they follow our advice on what to do — we have to demonstrate by how we live our own lives the moral and emotional teaching that we want our children to acquire.
I believe that we can more effectively help each other do this, when we have the tools of parent peer support.