The pleasures of kindness were well known in the past. Kindness was mankind's "greatest delight," the Roman philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius declared, and thinkers and writers have echoed him down the centuries. But today, many people find these pleasures literally incredible or at least highly suspect. An image of the self has been created that is utterly lacking in natural generosity. Most people appear to believe that deep down they (and other people) are mad, bad, and dangerous to know; that as a species ㅡapparently unlike other species of animalsㅡ we are deeply and fundamentally hostile to each other, that our motives are utterly self-seeking, and that our sympathies are forms of self-protection.

On a campaign in Silesia, Frederick, King of Prussia, gave orders one day that all fires and lights were to be extinguished in his camp by a certain hour. To make certain that his order was obeyed, the king himself went the rounds. Passing by the tent of a certain Captain Zietern, he noticed the glimmer of a candle, and upon entering found the officer sealing a letter to his wife. Frederick demanded to know what Zietern thought he was doing; didn't he know the orders? The captain threw himself at the king's feet, unable to deny or excuse his disobedience. Frederick instructed him to sit down and add a postscript to the letter, which Frederick himself dictated: "Tomorrow I shall perish on the scaffold." Zietern wrote what he was told and was duly executed the following day.

Before you begin teaching your children responsibility, be certain you have the concept clear in your own mind. What does responsibility mean to you? What responsibilities do you think children should have, and at what ages? Most parents feel that basic responsibilities include keeping a clean room and picking up any mess made in other rooms of the house. When our children become students, we want them to meet the requirements of being a learner and to do their homework religiously. Another responsibility is for personal hygiene, being bathed and combed and well dressed. There is financial responsibility, in which children learn to budget and to spend wisely their allowances or income from part-time jobs. Children need to become responsible with their time, getting to school before the bell rings, keeping curfew, managing to fit in all their activities and still have down-time left.

A survey is somewhat like an interview in that the person conducting it prepares a set of questions. However, an interview is done one-on-one, and the conversation has great flexibility. A survey, on the other hand, is usually written in advance. A number of participants agree to answer a set of questions. If they write their answers, the survey takes the form of a questionnaire. They may or may not complete the survey in your presence. What you will get will be the briefest answers to your questions ㅡno more, no less. Obviously, you will run into difficulty if you realize later on that you should have asked different questions. Therefore, in a survey, most of the work lies in the preparation of the questions so as to get the best answers.

When you remove body language and facial expressions from communication, you remove many of the signals we use to read other people. Communication over the phone leaves you and your customer with limited insight into how the person on the other end of the conversation is reacting. Is he in a defensive posture and getting more withdrawn as you talk? Is she rolling her eyes while you tell her how much you value her business? Is he reading his email instead of listening to you? The more physical cues we remove from our interactions, the easier it is to have misunderstandings. Fortunately, you can still tell a lot from tone of voice.

The tradition of a pep squad as a support for sports teams is one that many people are familiar with. These groups exist for many different types of high school and college sports, most notably football. Essentially, a pep squad is a group of individuals who have the responsibility of motivating and promoting enthusiasm for a particular sports team before and during a sports competition. The use of the term varies to a degree from place to place. In some settings, the pep squad is considered to be the same as a cheerleading squad. Other locations see it as a separate entity from the cheerleaders, although they share a common purpose. This may lead to the squad being more of a dance team, performing more complicated routines that are usually associated with cheerleading.

It was usual among "savages" for the man who had food to share it with the man who had none, for travelers to be fed at any home they chose to stop at on their way, and for communities harassed with drought to be maintained by their neighbors. If a man sat down to his meal in the woods, he was expected to call loudly for someone to come and share it with him, before he might justly eat alone. When a Western traveler told a Samoan about the poor in London, the "savage" asked in astonishment: "How is it? No food? No friends? No house to live in? Where did he grow? Are there no houses belonging to his friends"? The hungry Indian had but to ask to receive; however small the supply was, food was given to him if he needed it: "no one can want food while there is corn anywhere in the town".

Over the past 10,000 years, Homo sapiens has grown so accustomed to being the only human species that it's hard for us to think of any other possibility. Our lack of brothers and sisters makes it easier to imagine that we are the best example of creation, and that a chasm separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. When Charles Darwin indicated that Homo sapiens was just another kind of animal, people were outraged. Even today many refuse to believe it. If the Neanderthals had survived, would we still imagine ourselves to be a creature apart? Perhaps this is exactly why our ancestors wiped out the Neanderthals. They were too familiar to ignore, but too different to tolerate.

Team sports offer a particularly compelling form of drama. The outcome of a game, unlike that of a scripted drama, is unknown. Few people watch the same play or motion picture repeatedly because after they have seen it once they know the ending. The tension is gone. But tension fills each and every game of baseball, football, and basketball. Moreover, in organized sports the tension carries beyond each individual game and tends to increase over time. Each game is part of a designated sequence ㅡa seasonㅡ the goal of which is to produce a champion. Both individual games and the season as a whole attract interest and attention. Spectators follow the first to find out which of the two contesting teams will win, and the second to learn which one will emerge as the ultimate champion. I want my students to grow up more than yesterday. Suspense mounts because, as the end of the season approaches, games tend to become more important to the determination of the champion.

Benjamin Franklin began and ended each day with a question: "What good shall I do this day?" In the morning, and "What good have I done this day?" in the evening. In fact, many great thinkers embraced the idea of constantly questioning things. As Albert Einstein reportedly said, "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. " Of course, getting into the habit of self-reflection is easier said than done, as we often prefer to avoid asking ourselves the tough questions. As philosopher and psychologist John Dewey explained in his 1910 book, How We Think, reflective thinking involves overcoming our predisposition to accept things at face value and the willingness to endure mental unrest. Enduring this discomfort is well worth the effort, as it can result in the confidence boost necessary to perform better in our work and daily lives.