For four years, I have been filling this space weekly with variations on the theme of urging you to raise children of character in your homes, communities and schools. For over a quarter of a century, I have been studying children's moral and character development and working with schools, communities, and families to foster such development.

Why is this so important? You may think that I am a broken record stuck in my own groove, and becoming annoying by making a mountain out of a molehill. Every now and then, as I look at hunger and war around the world, I wonder whether I should pick up a different banner. After all, those are real issues with import for everyone. Matters of life and death. Global issues.

But my doubts are only rare and momentary, as I keep coming back to the same refrain. It is people who do good and people who do bad. Wars don't start by themselves. Hatred is not a natural force. Cruelty is not perpetrated by plants or minerals. People do these things and they do them in large part because of their characters.

If we want to live in a moral world, we need to raise moral children.

My friend Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) started Operation Respect (www.dontlaugh.org) to reduce the cruelty and hatred among children and adolescents. He has spent his entire adult life fighting one dragon after another. (Oops, sorry Peter. That was not a very good metaphor, as he is the author of "Puff, the Magic Dragon"). Let's change that to slaying one demon after another. Racial discrimination in the civil rights movement, sexism, and now youth violence and bullying. Real issues of global import, right? More important than youth character, right? Wrong. Just listen to Peter.

In the preface to my new book, Parenting for Good, Peter writes "I believe that the future health and stability of the world may well rest upon [this work]…such work might be decisive in determining, not only the future well-being of our world, but our very survival." His argument, and his passion, remind me of why we are involved in this work to begin with. (To order a copy of the book and read Peter's eloquent foreword, go to www.charactereducation.com.).

As George Benson wrote "I believe that children are the future." Peter is simply echoing this sentiment.

There is no future without children and no moral, civil future without children of character.

And children don't shape their own character, at least mostly they don't and certainly not in their early years. Parents do. Teachers do. Neighbors do. The media do (unfortunately).

So our obligation is to raise children of character not just for our own sanity or to have a healthy or peaceful home. Rather it is to contribute to the quality of life in the world at large. To do our small part to add to peace and harmony in the world.

Didn't realize just how significant you were, did you? We all tend to doubt whether we can make a difference in the world. Now you know what's really at stake in raising children of character. Don't forget. You can change the world, simply by parenting well.