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Five Secrets for Raising Healthy and Happy Children

By Arthur Rosen

Five: Peer Group

Of all the various elements that make a healthy, happy and successful child, nothing is as important as the peer group in which he is placed. I use the word 'placed' because it is the parent who places his child in an environment that can either be positive or negative.

Who are his playmates? Eventually his mates and friends will be those with whom he goes to school with. Too many parents 'dump' their children in the local public school and are surprised when they turn out with problems, they experiment with drugs and sex and develop strange life styles such as becoming gay or demonic.

In the adolescent, the peer pressure is more than he/she can take. The child must conform or be ostracized.

A parent should think very carefully before sending his precious child to a public school; the values that he will pick up there will supplant those values of his parents. Go to the school and see what the older children are like because your child will be like the boys and girls that you see coming out. Maybe at the young age there is little harm, but as the child grows, each year in a public school will corrupt the child.

Look into private Jewish schools. Yes, you will have to pay money; but is your child worth the money that you and your spouse were saving for a nice vacation? Tone down the vacation and upgrade the educational values; you will reap rewards.