Madate For Parenting Class in School
- by: Brenda Pifher, Keep America's Families Together
- recipient: Douglas ESD Board, President Obama
Birth rates in the United States, year 2007
Mom less than 15 years Mom 15-19 years
Total Births 6,218 445,045
1st Child 6,088 357,092
2nd Child 99 73,891
3rd Child 2 10,863
4th Child 1 1,472
Not Stated 29 1,727
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_12.pdf
More children in this country are abused, neglected, or murdered from a teen parent as opposed to an older, more mature parent. I see at least two processes that will help mend this tragic situation. Children, male and female, need to be taught in a structured manor, how to take care of a child (much as a professor would teach any other subject, such as arithmetic); this would include parenting classes and essential nutrition education course. The subject of this petition will be the parenting classes; in a later petition will be the subject of nutrition.
Starting in grade 5, children are taught Sex Education, yet birth rates are sky high! With birth rates like these, it is apparent that children are still birthing children (and at rates higher than in years previous), we must continue Sex Education to teach about abstinence and protection. However, that is apparently not enough. When these children reproduce, they have not been given the skills that are needed to parent a child properly. Because of this, they also lack the skills to cope with a baby whom demands that the parent put aside their own desires for the needs of the infant.
Solution:
1) Every male and female child in grades 5 -12 will be mandated to attend a class that should be labeled as something gentle and fitting such as "Nurture Skills" (please leave a comment if you feel you have a better title for this.) Nurture Skills should be held for a minimum of 40 min. per every school day. This class shall be graded as a pass or fail for grades 6-12. For grades 6-12, the student must receive a passing grade in Nurture Skills to continue to the next grade of education. For grade 5, class will not be graded.
2) For lower grade levels, the children should be taught more basic things, such as simply how to hold a baby, make sure your child understands that for weeks the new baby will only sleep, eat, look around, poop, pee, and cry. Be especially clear about the crying, i.e., explicitly the child that some babies cry a lot and that this is NOT anyone's fault. Teach them that when a baby cries to is only because they need some help. Make sure they know the typical things to check for when babies cry, a] does baby need diapered, b] is baby hungry, and what to do if baby is still discontent. That you can do many fun things with baby that might make him happy such as rocking baby, singing to baby, and reading to baby, etc.
Reinforce these skills and information by providing each student with a baby doll to carry out theses new skills. Not only will this teach them basic necessary skills, it will provide them with an example of how much time and responsibility it takes to care for a child, thus discouraging reproduction until they are older.
3) As the children progress in age and grade level, so will the complexity and amount of skills that are taught. Upon graduation from high school, children should know such things as (but certainly not limited to) the following:
a] Positive discipline methods.
b] How to make the physical conditions of the home safe for an infant and growing child.
c] Know the month-by-month, and year-by-year, development of a child (i.e. what to expect at what age.)
d] Have ability to interact well with children such as knowing of activities that can be done with a child and for what age it is appropriate. To know of recourses and places to obtain inspiration on developing their own activities.
e] Have a list of community offered, family aid, and family planning resources.
We the undersigned, are requesting that you notice the need for mandated parenting courses in schools and take action on this matter.
Following this introduction, you will birth statistics of teen-aged Oregon mothers for the year 2007, then a brief, two paragraph, explanation about why we believe parenting courses in school are necessary, and lastly a section titled solutions, in which we describe how the courses could be implemented best.
Birth rates in the United States, year 2007
Mom less than 15 years Mom 15-19 years
Total Births 6,218 445,045
1st Child 6,088 357,092
2nd Child 99 73,891
3rd Child 2 10,863
4th Child 1 1,472
Not Stated 29 1,727
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_12.pdf
More children in this country are abused, neglected, or murdered from a teen parent as opposed to an older, more mature parent. I see at least two processes that will help mend this tragic situation. Children, male and female, need to be taught in a structured manor, how to take care of a child (much as a professor would teach any other subject, such as arithmetic); this would include parenting classes and essential nutrition education course. The subject of this petition will be the parenting classes; in a later petition will be the subject of nutrition.
Starting in grade 5, children are taught Sex Education, yet birth rates are sky high! With birth rates like these, it is apparent that children are still birthing children (and at rates higher than in years previous), we must continue Sex Education to teach about abstinence and protection. However, that is apparently not enough. When these children reproduce, they have not been given the skills that are needed to parent a child properly. Because of this, they also lack the skills to cope with a baby whom demands that the parent put aside their own desires for the needs of the infant.
Solution:
1) Every male and female child in grades 5 -12 will be mandated to attend a class that should be labeled as something gentle and fitting such as "Nurture Skills" (please leave a comment if you feel you have a better title for this.) Nurture Skills should be held for a minimum of 40 min. per every school day. This class shall be graded as a pass or fail for grades 6-12. For grades 6-12, the student must receive a passing grade in Nurture Skills to continue to the next grade of education. For grade 5, class will not be graded.
2) For lower grade levels, the children should be taught more basic things, such as simply how to hold a baby, make sure your child understands that for weeks the new baby will only sleep, eat, look around, poop, pee, and cry. Be especially clear about the crying, i.e., explicitly the child that some babies cry a lot and that this is NOT anyone's fault. Teach them that when a baby cries to is only because they need some help. Make sure they know the typical things to check for when babies cry, a] does baby need diapered, b] is baby hungry, and what to do if baby is still discontent. That you can do many fun things with baby that might make him happy such as rocking baby, singing to baby, and reading to baby, etc.
Reinforce these skills and information by providing each student with a baby doll to carry out theses new skills. Not only will this teach them basic necessary skills, it will provide them with an example of how much time and responsibility it takes to care for a child, thus discouraging reproduction until they are older.
3) As the children progress in age and grade level, so will the complexity and amount of skills that are taught. Upon graduation from high school, children should know such things as (but certainly not limited to) the following:
a] Positive discipline methods.
b] How to make the physical conditions of the home safe for an infant and growing child.
c] Know the month-by-month, and year-by-year, development of a child (i.e. what to expect at what age.)
d] Have ability to interact well with children such as knowing of activities that can be done with a child and for what age it is appropriate. To know of recourses and places to obtain inspiration on developing their own activities.
e] Have a list of community offered, family aid, and family planning resources.
We thank you for the time that you have put into reading this petition and taking action to get parenting courses mandated in school.
Respectfully,
The Petition Signers
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