Parents = role models

From Secular Wholeness* (a book I've mentioned several times here before and which I'm reading in bits and pieces):

[...] is it true there are no positive, public role models? [...] not only is there no dearth of them, but that we have a wide and ever-shifting pantheon of modern cultural heroes who are regularly held up to display some kind of beauty or skill or courage.
[...]
I asked an experienced primary-school teacher what kinds of role models she was offering children these days. "Oh, lots; there's a whole new pantheon," she replied. She mentioned Ruby Bridges Hall, the 6-year-old girl who was the first African-American to integrate a segregated school, and the video on Rev. King, Our Friend Martin . In a school where the student body is about one-third Asian and one-third African-American, the Disney movie Mulan was "a huge hit." But when she polled her classes on who were their heroes, almost half named their parents first, ahead of any culturally-supplied icon. Another large fraction named an older sibling, aunt, uncle, or teacher. At least for young children, the figures who define excellence are most often the people they live with -- which suggests that the search [for role models] should start at home.

*http://www.tassos-oak.com/online/07models.html#25974