Let's Teach Mandatory Parenting Classes in High School

One of the things I think societies need to do to prevent child abuse is to teach all of its citizens effective parenting skills. We become parents without ever having been trained in the most common and timeless of "jobs."

Parenting simply is not easy for anyone, and many acts of abuse are done because the parent doesn't know how else to manage their child's behavior. Inflicting some form of physical punishment is therefore often levied because the parent doesn't know an alternative intervention that works. We should thus teach high school juniors and seniors, in school, what to expect as parents and how best to be parents themselves (with an emphasis on delaying parenthood until they are emotionally and financially mature enough to effectively handle the responsibility).

In fact, educational systems should also teach other life skills, such as financial aptitude, as part of the core curriculum in addition to the traditional three Rs. Our world would be a better place if we all learned to be better, more responsible people as well as literate ones.

© 2008 David Lee Cummings / Healing Embrace