THE NEED
TO PREPARE
CHILDREN AND TEENS FOR PARENTING
|Home
Page| |The
Need to Prepare Children and Teens| |Theory and Rationale| |Contact
Us|
- Parenting
Education Addresses Child Abuse and Neglect
- Parenting
Education Addresses Cycles of Violence
- Parenting
Education Addresses Teen Pregnancy
- Parenting
Education Addresses the Critical Need for Empathy
- Parenting
Education Addresses the Need for Early Sensitive Care
- Parenting
Education Addresses Mental Health
- Parenting
Education Addresses the Need for Paternal Involvement
- Parenting
Education Addresses Latchkey Children
- Parenting
Education and Our Schools and Youth Programs
Parenting Education Addresses Child Abuse and
Neglect
Widescale,
early parenting education is long overdue in our schools and the need becomes
more compelling each year. While the nation's overall crime rate fell 22 percent
from 1993 to 1997, reports of child abuse and neglect grew by 8 percent and
confirmed cases by 4 percent. America's child abuse and neglect statistics
published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Third
National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect and Child
Maltreatment 1997: Reports from the States, and by Prevent Child Abuse
America, continue to indicate a tragically escalating situation:
- 3 million
cases of abuse and neglect were reported in 1997, representing 42
of every 1,000 American children, more than double the reports in 1986; 1 million of these charges were "substantiated." - Two thousand
children are estimated to be killed by maltreatment each year by the U.S.
Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, with 18,000 children
permanently disabled and 570,000 seriously injured.
- Approximately
three children died each day in the
- Of proven
cases only, for every 1,000 American children, 8 were neglected; 4 were
physically abused; and 2 were sexually abused.
- The actual
incidence is estimated to be three times the numbers reported.
- 75 percent of
1997 child victims were abused or neglected by their parents, and 10
percent by other relatives.
Their helplessness and the intensity of their required care and its
inherent stresses to make our youngest the most vulnerable to maltreatment:
- Infants under
one year continue to have the highest incidence of abuse and neglect.
- Children ages
3 and under accounted for more than a fourth of 1997 abuse and neglect
victims, and for more than three-fourths of all fatalities.
- The majority
of all abuse and neglect victims are ages 7 and younger.
- For children
under age four, deaths from abuse and neglect now outnumber those from
accidents.
In Current Trends in Child Abuse Reporting and Fatalities, the
National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse (NCPCA)
There is a
clear relationship between lack of knowledge of child health and development,
unrealistic expectations of young children and harsh discipline methods. Why
not begin to address the need for Parenting Education earlier, when all young
people can be reached in school at an age when their attitudes and expectations
are in formation? Schools already identify 59% of the cases of child
maltreatment in the
Parenting Education Addresses Cycles of
Violence
The
generational pattern of child maltreatment and violence is quite clear: violence
begets violence. Seventy-five percent of child victims are abused or
neglected by their parents and ten percent by other relatives. Although the
much publicized FBI Crime Reports continue to show declining violent crimes, by
a significant margin,
- Youth under
18 are involved in a fourth of serious violent crimes in the
- In the 1990s,
youth were involved in 42% of murders with more than one perpetrator.
- Juvenile
arrests for murder more than tripled from 1985 to 1995.
- Between 1985
and 1994, violent crimes committed by juveniles increased by 70%, almost
entirely in gun crimes. Juvenile weapons violations rose 103% in that
period.
- The violent
crimes arrest rate for females nearly doubled from 1981 to 1998.
- In the most
recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 17 percent of high school students
(including 29% of male students) indicated carrying a weapon on more than
one day in the 30 days prior to being surveyed; 5 percent (9 percent of
males) reported carrying a gun.
- 36 percent of
high school students (44 percent of males) had been in a physical fight
more than once during the 12 months preceding the survey.
- 13 percent of
female students had been forced to have sexual intercourse in the 12
months prior to the survey.
States are now wrestling with the problem of finding appropriate
incarceration and treatment for preteens and even younger children convicted of
murder and other violent crimes. They are among tomorrow's parents. The very
recent decreases in juvenile violent crimes must be viewed as impetus to
increase programs such as parenting education that can make a difference,
rather than an excuse to avoid services.
Child abuse and neglect increase the odds of future delinquency
and criminality by 40 percent in findings by the National Institute of Justice.
Abuse and neglect has many other severe short and long-term effects including
drops in IQ and learning disabilities, depression and suicide, and alcohol and
drug use, according to The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect
Information. The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect has concluded
that, since family histories of incarcerated juveniles revealed that
seventy-five percent of those who had committed the most violent offenses had
suffered serious abuse by a family member, reducing crime and other
social pathologies depends on creating and maintaining safe, healthy
early-life environments.
Parenting education offers a vital means of
addressing these tragic and rapidly escalating problems. Too few of our
children are being prepared to care for themselves or to effectively care for
the next generation. Many abusive and neglectful parents are unaware of normal
child development. Because they do not recognize age-appropriate behavior, they
often punish inappropriately. Most people parent the way they were parented,
causing child abuse, neglect and violent behavior to be passed from one
generation to the next in a "cycle of violence."
Further fortifying the cycle of violence, the typical
Parenting Education Addresses Teen Pregnancy
Teen
pregnancy, despite the slightly reduced rates of recent years, continues to
represent another national epidemic. Its severe developmental and economic
costs to young mothers, their children and future generations of their family,
and to society as a whole are well documented.
- Over half a
million
- Each year,
11% of all
- Our country
leads the developed world with twice the teen pregnancies of
- 76% of births
to teens occur outside of marriage.
- One-fourth of
teenage mothers have a second child within two years of their first.
Teen childbearing is widely regarded as a root cause of some of our
country's most difficult problems - poverty and welfare dependency, child abuse
and other crime, physical and developmental disabilities, drug abuse and
homelessness. Untold personal and family suffering, and $29 billion per year in
public spending on direct and social costs of teen pregnancy might potentially
be avoided.
- 80% of teen
mothers will live in poverty and rely on welfare, many for their
children's critically important developmental years; few get any support
from their babies' fathers.
- teen mothers
are 50% less likely to graduate from high school.
- teen fathers are
also less likely to finish high school, and also earn significantly less
later in life.
- teen mothers
eventually have 24% more children but are 50% less likely to marry.
- compared with
women who delayed first births only until 20 or 21, teen mothers have 50%
more low birth weight babies, dramatically raising infant deaths,
blindness and deafness, chronic respiratory problems and cerebral palsy,
retardation and mental illness, and later dyslexia, hyperactivity, other
learning disabilities.
- children of teen
mothers have poorer health yet receive only half the level of medical care
of other children.
- children of
teen mothers are more than twice as likely to be victims of abuse or
neglect and to go into foster care.
- daughters of
teen mothers are 83% more likely to have a baby before age 18.
- sons of teen
mothers are almost 3 times as likely to land in prison.
- children of
teen mothers are more likely to grow up without critically needed
emotional support and cognitive stimulation, resulting in lasting disadvantages.
- children of
teen mothers have lower cognitive development, repeat twice as many
grades, and drop out of high school far more often.
(sources: Alan Guttmacher Institute and Robin Hood Foundation)
Through parenting education, girls and boys can begin
to look at having and caring for a child as one of the most important and
demanding responsibilities a person can have. They can understand the emotional
maturity and financial readiness that are required, and the advantages of
postponing parenthood. By teaching the rigors and responsibilities as well as
the joys of parenting, and by building critical thinking and problem solving
skills, parenting education gives young people the tools to make informed,
realistic life decisions.
Parenting Education
Addresses the Critical Need for Empathy
The emphasis parenting education places on
developing and practicing empathy for other human beings, teaching non-violent
communication, caregiving, problem-solving and other relationship skills
provides a unique "hands-on" opportunity to break into cycles of
child abuse, neglect and collective societal violence.
As the Director of the Texas Office Delinquency
Prevention put it, ". . . we understand that a child who is not nurtured
is a child who never learns to trust, never develops empathy, never accepts
responsibility for his behavior, and hurts others with impunity."
As Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents' founding
board member Dr. Myriam Miedzian explores fully in her book, Boys Will Be
Boys; Breaking the Link Between Masculinity and Violence, recent
psychological research from different theoretical perspectives implicates
empathy as a most essential element both in promoting altruistic behavior and
in decreasing violence. The lack of empathy for other human beings
characteristic of the increasing numbers of juveniles who commit violent and
sometimes heinous crimes compels Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents'
intervention.
Dr. Miedzian concluded that "human beings, male
and female, have a significant potential for empathy and altruism. . . ."
and that "... we can, if we want to, decrease violence," by applying
the findings of social science research to prevention programs. Recent studies
have shown that shortly after one year of age, virtually all children begin to
have some level of understanding of other people's experiences and attempt to
help or comfort someone in distress. As children age, their empathic and
altruistic behavior varies; the strength and endurance of these characteristics
is linked to the levels of active nurturing and direct sensitization and
training they experience from their fathers and mothers.
From the moment a child is born, parents and
caregivers must respond quickly to an infant's cries and consistently satisfy
its needs to foster the development of empathy. This responsiveness enabling
the baby to return to a sense of calm well-being consistently, allows for the
development of love, trust and a conscience through attachment to the
caregiver. Later, caregivers and teachers can further the development of
empathy through helping a child label his or her own emotions and talk about
ways to learn from and handle them, as well as sensitizing a child to the
emotions of others.
Both boys and girls will benefit from being taught to
be nurturing, helpful and sensitive to the feelings of others, but boys must be
particularly encouraged to think of themselves as capable future parents. Boys
are tragically vulnerable to failing to acquire the capacity for empathy, at
the great personal and societal costs of their increased violent behavior. Most
obviously, in many homes sensitivity is covertly if not overtly discouraged
among sons, with a concomitant rise in aggressive conduct; this is strongly
reinforced in the media and other public domains of boys' lives.
In addition, lack of access to empathic male
caregiving has shown to be particularly associated with greater violent
behavior among boys. In an alarmingly increasing number of families, a male
parent is absent, much less a sensitive and nurturing childrearing presence.
Because boys who engage in childcare activities are known to exhibit less
aggressive and more pro-social behavior, the early experiential education
advocated by Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents can interrupt this cycle.
While developing empathy is a key component of
parenting education programs for young people, the critical role of schools in
building empathy is highlighted by the title of the "Roots of Empathy,"™ program,
which begins even before kindergarten. Founded in the Toronto District School
Board, this program is expanding to school sites throughout
Parenting Education Addresses the
Need for Early Sensitive Care
The importance of parents providing for very early cognitive stimulation
and physical activity to enable their children to reach their intellectual
potential may seem well-publicized in recent times, but not everyone has access
to this critical information, yet. Because of the power of learning and
development that take place in the critical infancy period, this information
must become available to and accepted by all. Children who are seldom touched
or who don't play much develop brains 20 to 30% smaller than normal for
children their age. More neural connections are created in the baby's brain as
a result of sensory experiences in the first year than at any other time in the
human lifespan.
Zero
to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families sees educating young people as a
key strategy in disseminating this information, "All students in
elementary, middle and high school should learn about the stages of infant
development and the effects on infants of differing kinds of caregiver
behavior... Conveying those messages in elementary, secondary and high schools
has the added benefit that future fathers as well as mothers will be exposed to
them."
Nutrition
and stimulation are not all that are needed. Research, according to Zero to
Three and others, has also determined that essential relationships,
particularly with parents, in the first years of children's lives have the
greatest influence on their emotional development and, as a result, on their
later success.
Consistent,
early sensitive care provides the critical foundation for development of
empathy, persistence and self-motivation, and the ability to cope with stress
and strong feelings that have been found to greatly determine success in
adolescent and adult life. It also serves to temper the results of later
childhood traumas and upheavals. These key early experiences have dramatic and
unique impact children's psychological and actual neurological development. In
addition, children learn to initiate and maintain relationships through
aggressive or cooperative behaviors from their early family interactions.
Expectations of and ways of relating to people, both positive and negative,
formed during early life greatly determine the responses children elicit and
underlie their future relationships, becoming increasingly difficult to change
over time.
Although
parents generally know they are an important influence on their children's
development, surveys have shown that they do not necessarily understand how
their ongoing interactions affect the development and learning of their babies
and toddlers. Of particular concern, although parents believe their greatest
influence is on emotional development, they also feel they have the least
information and confidence in the critical emotional and social areas. Some
parents have difficulty in providing emotionally sensitive care because of
their own early experiences.
Research
has shown that as many as 30% of children from all social groups, and even more
among those living in poverty, are at risk for later problems because of
emotionally inadequate care. Much evidence about the specific poor
developmental outcomes resulting from lack of early sensitive care results from
a Mother-Child Study (Egeland and Sroufe) that has tracked children primarily
of single, frequently adolescent, uneducated mothers for 19 years from prenatal
period to early adulthood. Children who have not received sensitive care in
their earliest years have been found to be at significantly higher risk for:
difficulties forming peer relationships as preschoolers and young teens; lower
school achievement, especially in adolescence; requiring special education (72%
were placed by 3rd grade); increased behavior problems; and teen drug and
alcohol use.
Parenting
Education for school age children and teens addresses these concerns in several
ways before young people become parents by working to interrupt the cycle of
poor parenting. Parenting Education not only teaches information and skills
needed for effective parenting, but also provides impetus for critical
self-reflection. Parenting Education in the classroom or youth program also
fosters a supportive environment and builds sensitivity and skills among
teachers to enable children to develop empathy, responsiveness, positive
expectations and relationship skills that can offset less than optimal home
situations. The parent involvement components of recommended curricula can
educate and sensitize students' parents, as well.
Parenting Education Addresses Mental
Health
Mental health is also strongly impacted by parenting practices, and the
rates of mental health problems in young people have been rising alarmingly. The National
Institute of Mental Health indicates one in seven children experiences mental
illness, and many adult mental health problems are rooted in poor parenting.
Psychosocial problems were found in 6.8 percent of children visiting
pediatricians or family doctors in 1979, jumping to 18.7 percent in 1996, according
to a study published in Pediatrics in 2000. Suicide is now the second
leading cause of death among 5 to 19 year olds; the rate has tripled since
1960. The most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that more than a fourth
of high school students (and more than a third of female students) indicated
symptoms of depression, nearly a fifth (including one fourth of females) had
considered attempting suicide, and 8 percent (11 percent of females) had
attempted suicide in the 12 months prior to the survey. Widescale parenting
education for young people can enable more mentally healthy future generations
by interrupting family cycles to PREVENT poor parenting practices BEFORE they
begin.
While all of the programs endorsed on Prepare
Tomorrow’s Parents' Curricula
page address mental health needs, Childbuilders and the
Far
more prevalent than the glaring examples of child abuse and neglect, teen pregnancies,
and paternal uninvolvement are the subtler versions of poor parenting.
Characterized by the lacks of nurturing, respect, guidance, appropriate
discipline, and failure to meet the needs of children as individuals, these
common family situations also have negative effects on lifetime mental health.
While
some serious mental illnesses now appear to be biological in nature, many
clearly are not. The lack of healthy parenting practices is implicated in
mental health problems that may become manifest in low self-esteem, depression,
addictions, violence to self and others, teen pregnancies, school problems and
gang involvement. Healthy parenting also has particularly critical impact for
the mental health of children who are biologically predisposed to mental
illness or who have other special needs or difficult family situations such as
divorce, death, poverty, etc.
Most
children who are nurtured and guided properly and who are disciplined
positively develop a healthy identity, self-esteem, knowledge of and respect
for limits, a moral code to live by, and the ability to make wise choices. They
become well prepared to be productive in their adult roles as workers,
community members and parents. As Childbuilders puts it, "The bottom line:
People who feel good about themselves do not have a need to hurt themselves or
others."
Far
too often, children do not receive the critical combination of healthy
parenting elements. They may be loved but given no limits, emotionally abused
or neglected, spanked for "misdeeds" within expectations beyond their
developmental capacity, disciplined harshly or not at all, routinely shamed or
belittled for ordinary childhood behavior, etc.
While
many deprived of nurturing and positive guidance will be able to struggle to
achieve and maintain mental health as young people and as adults, too
frequently they try to numb their hurt and feelings of rejection and low
self-worth with alcohol or drugs. Others seek the affection and approval they
have missed through sexual behavior, having a baby who will love them, or
becoming involved in gangs. Still others temporarily alleviate their feelings
of rage by inflicting their pain on others through violence or abuse; some have
not had adequate opportunities to develop empathy to temper their actions
against others, and are unable to accept responsibility for these behaviors.
And others use self-abuse like cutting for temporary relief. Finally, some
(including a tragically growing number of teens and younger children) feel they
must end their pain permanently, attempting and often succeeding in committing
suicide.
Childbuilders
concludes, "Whatever the choice, these individuals hurt not only
themselves but also their loved ones, society at large, and, most
unfortunately, their children." As each generation learns to parent from
their own observation and experience, these children go on to unintentionally
hurt their own children, perpetuating family cycles of inadequate childrearing
knowledge, skills and nurturing that lead to avoidable mental health problems.
While
some parents do find their way to a parenting class or counselor for help, our
overwhelming societal ramifications of poor parenting practices require large
scale prevention programming. In addition, it is essential to develop awareness,
knowledge and skills in young people early enough to shape attitudes,
expectations and behaviors in formation. Parents Under Construction has found
that the younger the child, the more extensive are the changes that result from
their curriculum.
Parenting Education Addresses the
Need for Paternal Involvement
The strong
links between the growing absence of fathers in children's lives to all of the
social, family and personal problems noted on this page, including child abuse,
youth violence, teen pregnancy, latchkey children and mental health, highlight
the critical need for nurturing, parenting and relationship skills education
for all our young people.
In the words of Cornell professor Urie
Bronfenbrenner, one of the most eminent developmental psychologists of our
time, "Controlling for factors such as low income, children growing up in
[father absent] households are at a greater risk for experiencing a variety of
behavioral and educational problems, including extremes of hyperactivity and
withdrawal; lack of attentiveness in the classroom; difficulty in deferring
gratification; impaired academic achievement; school misbehavior; absenteeism;
dropping out; involvement in socially alienated peer groups, and the so-called
'teenage syndrome' of behaviors that tend to hang together -- smoking,
drinking, early and frequent sexual experience, and in the more extreme cases,
drugs, suicide, vandalism, violence, and criminal acts."
According to over 72% of a
Yet, many studies confirm that the more fathers
are involved with their children, the better the children do psychologically,
socially, and intellectually. Increased paternal involvement and warmth
have been positively associated with a child's: cognitive and intellectual
development; academic achievement; ability to empathize; mental health; self
esteem; self control; and competency at problem-solving tasks. Lack of paternal
involvement, on the other hand, is associated with increased rates of: child
abuse and neglect; delinquency, future violent and criminal behaviors, and
incarceration; teen pregnancy; failing in or dropping out of school; illnesses,
accidents, injuries and poisonings; emotional problems; teen drug, alcohol and
tobacco use, and suicides.
While the 1990s engendered a prominent national
increase in fatherhood interest in many sectors, Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents
recognizes this as a sensitive issue. We do not discount that single mothers
and families with other adults in parental and other supportive roles can and
do succeed in raising fine children. Nor do we discount the pervasive and
tragic overriding effects of unemployment and poverty on father involvement --
or of the inequities of income for women and minorities on the overall lives of
children and families. Further, we do not imply that men in general do not wish
to be key contributors to their children's healthy, satisfying current lives
and futures, or that "real" father involvement is limited to or
guaranteed by presence in the home. We know from research that most fathers who
live with or without their children really do care even if it is not always
shown in conventional ways.
Yet, the magnitude of the situation and the potential
of primary prevention to make inroads in ameliorating it make paternal
involvement a key issue for Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents to
address. Our goal is to see that education for parenting and nurturing is
recognized and implemented as one of the emerging strategies to:
- encourage
young men to postpone fatherhood until they are ready for its
responsibilities; (young men are highly significant in initiating sexual
activity and in deciding if protection will be used)
- raise the
expectation among young men and women that their children will have an
engaged father; (this process is best begun early in life, before the societal
implications of being male or female often override the powerful human
drive to
- nurture that
is equally present in boys and girls as toddlers) prepare young men to be
present, bonded, nurturing, active, emotionally connected and effective
from the beginning of the lives of their children, and help facilitate
their smooth developmental transition from biological father to committed
parent when the time comes; and to be positive influences in the lives of
children, in general
- inspire young
men and women to create more "father friendly" and "family
friendly" institutions and culture when they come of age and enter
civic life.
In
"All
children and youth must have parenting education. Schools should have a role in
educating boys to be parents.... Additional curricula could be created by
churches. . . and other institutions within the community," was one
recommendation of the 1994 Family Re-Union III, in which nearly 1,000 people
gathered from around the
Parenting Education Addresses
Latchkey Children
The
problem of "latchkey children" who must care for themselves and their
younger siblings after school has resulted from the dramatic rises in single
parent families and in households in which both parents work outside the home.
Many children are forced into caregiving situations at early ages:
- One in five children ages 6 to 12 are regularly left
without adult supervision after school, according to a recent (2000)
survey of working parents.
- One in ten 6 to 9 year olds are regularly left
unsupervised after school
- Only one-third of 10 to 12 year olds whose parents work
are regularly supervised after school. Many of these children are also
responsible to care for younger siblings.
- One-third of all complaints to child welfare agencies
involve latchkey children. Children in self-care are about three times
more likely than those supervised by adults to be involved in accidents.
After-school care is tragically unavailable or too costly for many
families. Extended family support networks have broken down. Families have
become increasingly mobile, reducing the opportunities for grandparents and
aunts to serve as caretakers. This has also reduced the opportunities for
children to observe and learn caregiving behaviors in their own homes.
Latchkey children need to learn about child development
and to develop caregiving skills immediately. While no replacement for
after-school care, Parenting Education in the schools provides these children
with knowledge and skills that they must put to use immediately.
Simultaneously, Parenting Education offers models of empathic, nurturing and
caregiving behaviors to children whose time with their parents is limited, and
counters the harmful influences of television and peers that have taken over
the socialization of large numbers of children while parents are working. Where
available, after-school programs provide excellent alternative settings to
provide Parenting Education to children who may be among those who need it
most.
Parenting Education and
Our Schools and Youth Programs
Mandatory
child-rearing classes in elementary and high schools can be among the most
effective widescale interventions to promote caring, responsible parenting,
reduce "absent fathers", help raise nonviolent children, and cut teen
pregnancy rates. The
changes to
Almost half of Americans change addresses every four
years, disrupting traditional extended family and neighborhood support
networks. 75% of women with children under 18 work outside the home, including
54% of those with children under age five. 30% of all families are now headed
by single parents, most of whom hold jobs. Many parents find themselves needing
to work longer and longer hours at their jobs. 50% of marriages end in divorce,
and many children have little access to noncustodial fathers. These factors
have severely limited parenting time and resources available to children,
promoting growing up without sufficient resources for guidance and supervision at
home.
In this time of crowded curricula and increasing
mandatory inclusions, it is important to note that benefits of Parenting
Education for children and teens are reaped long before the students become
parents, themselves. Young people are able to put their new relationship and
caregiving knowledge and skills to immediate use in their classrooms, families
and other areas of their lives. Through evaluations, we know that parenting
education programs that are available in schools can:
- encourage
nurturing, caring and responsibility early enough to have real impact on
development of both male and female children's and teens' beliefs,
attitudes and behaviors;
- strengthen
present family relationships and discourage early pregnancy by instilling
respect for the enormous responsibilities of parenthood;
- build
non-violent communication, relationship, childcare and problem-solving
knowledge and skills that both boys and girls put to use immediately in
their families and classrooms;
- develop
empathy in students and enable more caring, cooperative learning
environments that promote learning, through both direct teaching and
modeling;
- capitalize on
the universal attraction to babies and interest in family life, linking
school to "real life" to create high-interest, motivating
learning activities in all subject areas;
- improve
social and emotional competence and classroom atmospheres, helping
students to better focus on their academic tasks and resulting in
increased learning;
- develop
cognitive skills such critical thinking, planning, observing, listening,
communicating, emphasizing, brainstorming options, assessing consequences
of choices, and reflecting on one's actions, which promote learning in
core academic areas as well as improve relationships.
Young children in some existing programs display more appropriate
responses to conflict and more empathic, nurturing behaviors in their
classrooms and at home. Three commissioned studies of the program impact of the
model research-based curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade,
Educating Children for Parenting®, found that children exposed to the program
are effectively taught and choose "significantly more positive caregiving
and nurturing strategies," both in the school environment and in
caregiving situations. Older youth in some existing programs report that they
have become better babysitters and sibling caregivers, understand and relate to
their families more effectively, and are motivated to avoid pregnancy until
they are ready.
Parenting education must be included in the current
School Reform agenda. Our young people must be prepared not only for
"school to work," but also for the one occupation most of them will
have: parenthood. With diminished
funds, rising class sizes and crowded curriculum, it is important to stress
that parenting education does not have to be costly or take up a lot of
classroom time. The use of existing school structure, staff and volunteers
makes it cost-effective. Integrating parenting education into existing subject
areas as a thematic curriculum takes no extra time, while reinforcing the
standing curricula. For example, budgeting and height/weight graphs may be
covered in math class; child development and nutrition in science; journal
writing and storytelling in language arts, and so forth.
Parenting Education components can also be an
attractive and accommodating vehicle for integrating related state or district
mandates or recommendations into the school curriculum. Some, in Health and
Family and Consumer Sciences, mention Parenting Education explicitly, and all
involve teaching topics included in Parenting Education for children and teens.
In addition, Prepare Tomorrow’s Parents' recommended topics cover many areas
of the education component of the Comprehensive/Coordinated School Health
Program Model, now promoted by The Centers for Disease Control and American
School Health Association toward optimal national health.
Conflict resolution education has become entrenched
after only fifteen years; this attests to how quickly life skills curricula can
be embraced by educators and how easily and inexpensively they can be
incorporated into existing elementary and secondary school subjects. Character
education provides another example of a recent successful innovation that
recognizes the critical changing relationship of
Although schools hold the best opportunity to teach
parenting and nurturing to all our young people, a wide variety of youth
programs such as Scouts, 4-H, Boys and Girls Clubs, after-school programs,
religious youth groups, etc., can serve as excellent vehicles for reaching
young people in the out of school hours. Some will be able to reach youth at
particular risk for cycles of abuse and neglect, violence and crime, and teen
pregnancy. Parenting Education topics can overlap material to be covered in
earning badges and patches, as well as in parent involvement programming.
Parenting
education for our youth is a missing link in intercepting the well-documented
and growing generational cycles of child abuse, neglect, and abandonment;
senseless societal violence; and children having children. Schools are the only
institutions capable of the widespread implementation that can enable parenting
education to achieve its great potential to help ensure a safer and more humane
society.
Our children
need parenting education now, while their values are still forming, and we must
convince our schools, other youth serving programs, and government officials to
see that they get it. When we succeed, we will assure that the next generation
will suffer less neglect, abuse, and abandonment and that more of tomorrow's
children will have two confident, involved, and effective parents.
For more information, to share your ideas, or to learn how to become
involved, please contact Prepare
Tomorrow’s Parents.
|Home
Page| |The
Need to Prepare Children and Teens| |Theory and Rationale| |Contact
Us|