What qualities are important to bring up in a child first of all? Respect for elders? Fortitude? Sociability and tolerance for others? According to most people in the United States, one of the most important tasks of a parent is to teach children to be responsible.
The Pew Research survey covered 3000 people. They were asked to name 12 qualities that they consider important to educate in children, and also to choose the three most important among them. More than half – 55% of respondents – called responsibility one of the three main qualities that need to be instilled in a child.
The survey showed a surprising unanimity among Americans about nurturing responsibility – a quality that seems “especially important” to 93% of them, regardless of gender, age, race or political views of the respondents.
In second place was the ability to work. In different groups of respondents (from liberals to adherents of conservative views), this quality gained from 82 to 96%. And 42% included it in the top three most important.
The third, fourth and fifth places were respectively taken by “religious faith”, “helping others” and “good manners”.
At the same time, the study demonstrates how different views on education differ among adherents of different political views. For example, among those who adhere to a liberal position, empathy and curiosity are especially valued, but good manners are less appreciated.
Conservatives, on the other hand, put religious faith in second place and attach more importance to obedience.
Views on education also depend on the level of education. Americans who graduated from higher educational institutions value such qualities as tolerance, perseverance, curiosity, and the desire to help others much more than their compatriots without education.
Подробнее см. people-press.org/2014/09/18/teaching-the-children-sharp-ideological-differences-some-common-ground/9-18-2014_10/