New Resource: Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences (PACEs) Data Report: California Health Information Survey (CHIS), 2021

@David Dooley posted:

Hear, Hear!  Thank you, Frank Sterle.

Getting parenting classes into schools isn't going to be easy.  Visit cope24.com.  They've had limited success.

Here are a few thoughts and obstacles.

Every local and national interest group in the country will demand input into the parenting curriculum.

The folks fighting SEL will probably line up against this effort.

Would the parenting education be a separate class or folded into a general health class?

Would the parenting classes be an elective or mandatory?

Would parents be allowed to opt their children out of the class?

Would parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting the healthy development of children be taught?

Teachers are already overwhelmed teaching just the core subjects.

There is a critical teacher shortage, yet teachers are being laid off.

Many teachers are leaving the profession because of the unreasonable demands being put on them.

This is what you'll be up against.

To address two of your points/questions, the curriculum would be mandatory; however, in more socially conservative school-board jurisdictions there likely would need to be a parental-choice op-out available. ...   

When I asked a provincial teachers union official over the phone whether there is any childrearing or child-development science curriculum taught in any of the province’s school districts, he immediately replied there is not. When I asked the reason for its absence and whether it may be due to the subject matter being too controversial, he replied with a simple “Yes”.

This strongly suggests there are philosophical thus political obstacles to teaching students such crucial life skills as nourishingly parenting one’s children.

To me, it’s difficult to imagine that teaching parenting curriculum would be considered more controversial than, as a good example, teaching students Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum, beginning in Kindergarten, as is currently taught in many, if not most, Canadian public schools.

Hear, Hear!  Thank you, Frank Sterle.

Getting parenting classes into schools isn't going to be easy.  Visit cope24.com.  They've had limited success.

Here are a few thoughts and obstacles.

Every local and national interest group in the country will demand input into the parenting curriculum.

The folks fighting SEL will probably line up against this effort.

Would the parenting education be a separate class or folded into a general health class?

Would the parenting classes be an elective or mandatory?

Would parents be allowed to opt their children out of the class?

Would parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting the healthy development of children be taught?

Teachers are already overwhelmed teaching just the core subjects.

There is a critical teacher shortage, yet teachers are being laid off.

Many teachers are leaving the profession because of the unreasonable demands being put on them.

This is what you'll be up against.

In the book Childhood Disrupted the author writes that even “well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).

Thus, failing at parenthood can occur as soon as the decision is made to conceive and carry a baby to term.

By this I don’t mean they necessarily are or will be ‘bad’ parents. Rather, it’s that too many people will procreate regardless of not being sufficiently knowledgeable of child development science to parent in a psychologically functional/healthy manner. 

They seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they (potential parents) will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture their children’s naturally developing minds and needs.

As liberal democracies we cannot or will not prevent anyone from bearing children, even those who recklessly procreate. We can, however, educate young people for this most important job ever, even those who plan to remain childless, through mandatory high-school child-development science curriculum.

While it wouldn’t be overly complicated, it would be notably more informational than diaper changing and baby feeding, which often are already covered by home economics [etcetera] curriculum.

If nothing else, such child-development science curriculum could offer students an idea/clue as to whether they’re emotionally suited for the immense responsibility and strains of parenthood. Given what is at stake, should they not at least be equipped with such valuable science-based knowledge?

After all, a mentally as well as physically sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter; a world in which Child Abuse Prevention Month [every April] clearly needs to run 365 days of the year.

____

“The way a society functions is a reflection of the childrearing practices of that society. Today we reap what we have sown. Despite the well-documented critical nature of early life experiences, we dedicate few resources to this time of life. We do not educate our children about child development, parenting, or the impact of neglect and trauma on children.”

— Dr. Bruce D. Perry, Ph.D. & Dr. John Marcellus

I wonder why Advancing Parenting, www.advancingparenting.org, wasn't mentioned.