There are many factors that influence a person’s life in his or her formative years, but parenting is likely the most important among them. One of the crucial things that parents can teach their children is the importance of pride. Teaching their kids to be proud is essential because it can give them the strength to stand up for what is right and evaluate the situations around them with a sense of pride and self-worth.
A classic example of how teaching children to be proud makes them stronger is the upbringing of Martin Luther King Jr. A biography of the legendary Civil Rights Movement leader written by Fishman (2019) offers evidence of this. According to Fishman (2019), King Jr. learned the importance of pride when a clerk in a shoe shop “refused to serve Martin and his father” because they sat in places reserved for whites (p. 14). Instead of accepting the clerk’s discriminatory demands sanctioned by Jim Crow Laws, King Sr. proclaimed that he refuses to buy anything in a shop that treats him and his son as second-class citizens. By demonstrating his pride in being black to the store clerk, King Sr. also showed his son that there is no reason to be ashamed of his skin color. If he accepted the man’s demand and went to the places allotted to blacks, King Jr. could have learned there is no use in fighting against social injustice. Instead, the example of his father instilled pride in the future leader of the Civil Rights Movement and quite possibly gave him the strength to oppose injustice.
Teaching children to be proud is also crucial because it gives them an inherent sense of self-worth ad, hence, the sure psychological footing to evaluate the world around them.
Reference
Fishman, J. M. (2019). Martin Luther King Jr.: Walking in the light. Lerner Publishing Group.