As hordes of parents can attest, parenting education has long been a staple of child welfare services. It may very well be the most important one. But as we have been discussing in previous blog articles, the manner and context in which it and all other child welfare services are presented to families greatly misses the mark and, therefore, even something as valuable as parenting classes usually fails in its putative mission. Let us take a look at the idea of parenting education outside the child welfare system.
Rather than remedially teach parenting skills to those who have allegedly fallen short of the standard, why not avail all parents and even potential parents to this training. It's certainly not because of the lack of agreement about the role of good parenting, though this agreement might not translate into the need for proactive training. When the issue is broached, few would argue that parenting is not important; but otherwise it's usually not something on the minds of policy makers---the way computer training is, for example.
Writing in the May-June 2014 issue of American Psychologist, Terry Stancin and Ellen C. Perrin point out that, "Despite a growing evidence base for the benefits of parenting education programs and other social-emotional interventions for parents of young children, these programs are rarely accessible, affordable, and offered in comfortable and nonstigmatizing settings."
Parenting education can be viewed from two perspectives. First, as a series of complex tasks with significant ramifications, parenting benefits when guidance, ideas and study are part of learning how to educate and nurture children. Like all other tasks, there's much to learn and know and there needs to be a way and a place in which to do so. But, second, we can also consider parenting education as part of a more general approach to learning many additional all-important life-skills.
Much of what parents need to learn about parent-child interactions is not unique to those kinds of situations but very often also apply to other interactions and relationships. True, there are many specific parenting techniques to learn, but even those usually require more general skills. And these are skills which pertain to our philosophical outlook about life-goals and expectations and ideas about human interaction. Our ideas about patience are but one example of behavior and its underlying attitudes which pertain to parenting as well as many other scenarios. In fact, good parenting includes helping children learn these very skills.
But a mere perusal of any daily will immediately make us wonder how and why we have failed to inculcate these sensible and cooperative ideas and skills into the mind-set of so many people. While there can't be a simple answer, at the same time we would probably be correct to assume that in most cases this is an area of people's education that was lacking.
So why not include in school curricula rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) training. Not as therapy, but as education. As a matter of course this will include many skills necessary for good parenting as well as many other important aspects of dealing well with day-to-day experiences. REBT can be taught in an age appropriate manner throughout the elementary and high school years. This will equip citizens with very relevant skills with broad ramifications, and will recognize that human interaction and parenting are no less important than knowing how to use a computer.
Rather than remedially teach parenting skills to those who have allegedly fallen short of the standard, why not avail all parents and even potential parents to this training. It's certainly not because of the lack of agreement about the role of good parenting, though this agreement might not translate into the need for proactive training. When the issue is broached, few would argue that parenting is not important; but otherwise it's usually not something on the minds of policy makers---the way computer training is, for example.
Writing in the May-June 2014 issue of American Psychologist, Terry Stancin and Ellen C. Perrin point out that, "Despite a growing evidence base for the benefits of parenting education programs and other social-emotional interventions for parents of young children, these programs are rarely accessible, affordable, and offered in comfortable and nonstigmatizing settings."
Parenting education can be viewed from two perspectives. First, as a series of complex tasks with significant ramifications, parenting benefits when guidance, ideas and study are part of learning how to educate and nurture children. Like all other tasks, there's much to learn and know and there needs to be a way and a place in which to do so. But, second, we can also consider parenting education as part of a more general approach to learning many additional all-important life-skills.
Much of what parents need to learn about parent-child interactions is not unique to those kinds of situations but very often also apply to other interactions and relationships. True, there are many specific parenting techniques to learn, but even those usually require more general skills. And these are skills which pertain to our philosophical outlook about life-goals and expectations and ideas about human interaction. Our ideas about patience are but one example of behavior and its underlying attitudes which pertain to parenting as well as many other scenarios. In fact, good parenting includes helping children learn these very skills.
But a mere perusal of any daily will immediately make us wonder how and why we have failed to inculcate these sensible and cooperative ideas and skills into the mind-set of so many people. While there can't be a simple answer, at the same time we would probably be correct to assume that in most cases this is an area of people's education that was lacking.
So why not include in school curricula rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) training. Not as therapy, but as education. As a matter of course this will include many skills necessary for good parenting as well as many other important aspects of dealing well with day-to-day experiences. REBT can be taught in an age appropriate manner throughout the elementary and high school years. This will equip citizens with very relevant skills with broad ramifications, and will recognize that human interaction and parenting are no less important than knowing how to use a computer.
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