Below are 15 audio excerpts from Teaching Character and Values, the second show in the Kids These Days! series of radio call-in shows that air monthly as part of APRN's Talk of Alaska. These will play through your internet browser, but it may take a few minutes for the audio to start depending on file size and connection speed. To download a copy of any of these excerpts to your computer, right-click on the title and select "Save Target As..." from the menu that appears.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 1
Time: 4:22 File Size: 1.1 MB
Description: Program introduction, Underwriter credits, Steve Heimel and Nancy Seamount discuss how they developed their personal values..

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 2
Time: 2:26 File Size: 574.3 KB
Description: Nancy Seamount introduces Think Piece produced by the Alaska Teen Media Institute (ATMI). In this VOX POP, teen reporter Sara Perman talks with students at Anchorage’s West High and teen reporter Finn Straley from Raven Radio talks with students at Sitka High and Mount Edgecumbe.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 3
Time: 4:54 File Size: 1.2 MB
Description: Introduction and interview with guest Harriet Heath, author of Using Your Values To Raise Your Child To Be An Adult You Admire. Discussion topics: Family values: modeling and teaching them, cognitive development during adolescence, talking about your family’s values to your kids.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 4
Time: 3:06 File Size: 807.4 KB
Caller - Anthony from Juneau: Male teen who got his values from his grandmother. Nancy Seamount comments on Traditional Values of Native Alaskans as an organizing force. Harriet Heath: Traditional Values in Native communities mean there is common agreement and people can work together. Steve Heimel: people from indigeneous cultures have a different way of listening to their elders.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 5
Time: 5:53 File Size: 1.4 MB
Caller - Martha Whiting from Barrow: Once a child is proud of who they are they will be productive in home, community, school grade. It all comes down to self pride. Need to make it cool to be Inupiaq. Instead of calling it values, talk about what’s important in your life. Be part of your culture, make it alive, not something in a museum. There is competition with TV. Take kids grandkids hunting, fishing. Its a spiritual part of who we are. Harriet: easy to talk about words, but really need to know what they mean, living it, doing it.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 6
Time: 3:00 File Size: 705.8 KB
Caller - David in Anchorage: I got my values from my family. I was always taught you don’t be mean to someone just because you can. As an adult I realized my father had racial prejudices I never knew about. I’m 50 and TV had a big impact on me: Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Gunsmoke, all that hero stuff. You always stand up for the person who needs the help. There is a tremendous difference in the media these days.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 7
Time: 4:34 File Size: 1.1 MB
Description: Steve Heimel: We’re saying “values” but sometimes it helps to clarify things by saying right and wrong. Universal values? Variations in the way you treat people, ie: the clan is “us.” Steve: We know when something is “right” or “wrong.” Harriet: how do children get a sense of how we treat each other. Steve: Take the world of business: you’re expected to take advantage of weaknesses in others to profit.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 8
Time: 1:01 File Size: 243 KB
Description: Mid Break Music: “Family” by Split Lip Rayfield.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 9
Time: 6:17 File Size: 1.5MB
Caller - Matthew from Juneau: male teen who says his dad is the biggest influence on him. I can talk to him and he teaches me how to understand people and sticking up for others. We do a lot together and talk a lot about everything. He gets involved in my sports events. He’s really there for me and I feel I can talk to him about sex, alcohol, anything. He helps me prepare for the next steps in my life.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 10
Time: 3:48 File Size: 895.3 KB
Caller - Morgan from Aniak: TV does have an influence. Don’t let kids watch it. You never stop being a parent. Teach kids to try and follow the right way. Many kids don’t have a dad. Sometimes you have to put your foot down. Teens have a rebellious stage. Having Christianity really helps a lot. Harriet: you have a real awareness about what your kids are doing. Watch TV with your kids and help your kids think through what the messages mean to them. The important thing is to know your values and what they mean to you.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 11
Time: 3:02 File Size: 713.7 KB
Caller - John from Anchorage: I was raised by a man who was highly successful but pretty passive. It’s hard to break generational trends. I’m raising my kids on my own. Kids are resilient as long as parents are consistent. Harriet: emphasizes the parent role of being present for kids, changing generational programming. Get counseling, observe others, be aware, get outside support from others. Community can be very valuable in teaching values and character.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 12
Time: 3:17 File Size: 775.4KB
Caller - Lou from Gustavus: I believe values have an evolutionary life of their own. I came from a pretty dysfunctional family and if I followed their example I’d be in a lot of trouble. I believe that man is inherently good. We have politicians who tell us what we want to hear, but then do something else. As parents, example is the best teacher. Self esteem is the most incredible tool for honing good values. You can’t love anyone or anything if you don’t love yourself. Self esteem programs like the Rediscovery Program put troubled youth into the wilderness where they have to become dependent on each other to survive. Tells story about bonding experience when his son helped him shovel gravel. He believes man is inherently good.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 13
Time: 4:36 File Size: 1.1 MB
Description: Indigenous cultures learn through emulation; it’s the job of the child to watch the elder to learn how to do things. Harriet: I find Western culture is verbal. Our last caller proved we can change what our families give us. Nancy: In our Native cultures, modeling was an expected form of teaching. Modeling equals teachable moments. Harriet: In Native cultures, there is not a variety of values systems, but in Western cultures there are. Steve: We are fragmenting in our society where we don’t even have to associate with people who have differing values.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 14
Time: 2:52 File Size: 676.6KB
Caller - Dirk from Esther: I question that children are born as completely blank slates. There is a lot of conflict and contradiction between what our parents try to teach us, and what TV newspaper, music and Sunday school tell us. It’s a collage of contradictions. Kids are trying to sort all this out.

Teaching Character and Values - Excerpt 15
Time: 2:10 File Size: 510.5KB
Description: Show wrap up: Harriet thanks Steve and Nancy for taking on the adolescent years. She says that parents of adolescents need the kind of opportunity that they're providing. Underwriting credits.