Claim. Parents can educate children in filial piety and public virtue only by first embodying those virtues themselves.
Elaboration. SMM says parents should not merely tell children to be filial; they should first demonstrate filial piety before God and their own parents (CSG 4.9 §3, 95-83, 1977.11.11). In the same way, parents should show patriotism, loyalty, and sacrifice before expecting children to inherit them. The child is meant to look at the parent and think, “I want to be like him.” Education is therefore exemplary before it is verbal. The implication is that parental authority weakens when instruction is detached from observable life; children learn the direction of love by watching the direction their parents actually take.