How to fight corruption starting at home

This refers to Jocelyn R. Uy’s article, “Parents plant seeds of corruption–Tagle” (News, 6/11/14), which hits the nail on the head.

Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle’s insightful comment that corruption begins at home is a reminder for parents to take seriously their role as the primary educators of their children. Ideas about justice, charity, concern for others, honesty and selflessness are grasped principally through the example of the parents. When these values are actualized in the little daily choices, actions, decisions and interactions in family life, young children learn early on how to conduct themselves in the bigger environment outside the home.

If we want to remove corruption from our society, let’s begin by living justice and honesty within our own families by telling the truth, avoiding lies, paying our household helpers on time and with a just wage, following traffic rules, living simply, thinking of the needs of others before our own, learning how to share, acknowledging our mistakes and asking for forgiveness.

It is in the family where virtues (or their absence) are learned. If we want our society to improve, we need look no further. Let’s start right there in our own families.

—STEPHANIE C. OLIVARES,

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