by Wanda E

Created on: December 30, 2008

I think that we should be teaching parenting and child development as a requirement in high school. There are too many kids in high school having sex, getting pregnant and raising children. Many of the kids in school that have babies come from homes where they don't have anyone telling them right from wrong. If a child doesn't know enough not to have sex or at least to have protected sex and not risk having babies at a young age, what kind of parents are they going to be? Clearly no one is at home to teach them right from wrong, so who is going to teach them how to be parents? We as educators should be held responsible for that, and qualified teachers should be hired to do it.

People have to start looking at the bigger picture. If you teach a child how to parent early on, they will never forget it. They will always have that skill to apply whenever they decide to become parents. Just because we show them how to become quality moms and dads, doesn't mean that they are going to run out and have babies right away! It's kind've like the thought with condoms and birth control pills; people think that if you give them those items, they'll start having sex- and that's not true! We have to change our way of thinking and give these kids the skills they need to survive and teach their own kids how to do the same.

If parenting skills were taught in high school, there wouldn't be parents out there yelling and screaming at their babies because they don't know how to deal with their anger. They can be taught how to properly bathe a child, and dress them appropriately depending on the season it is outside. They can be taught how to keep the house clean and safe for their babies. Your typical teen doesn't even know how to hold a baby! The female will need to know how to get through the delivery stage, and the father will have to know what to expect during labor and delivery.

Child development is equally as important to teach because if teenagers don't understand why a baby does what it does, it could lead to serious problems. They have to understand that a baby cries because he has no other way to communicate. They have to realize that the baby isn't crying just to get on the parents nerves, or because he's a bad, spoiled baby. This is the way that some inexperienced parents think. How many times has a baby been hurt or killed by his parents because the baby just wouldn't stop crying?

There are so many males and females out here so called raising children and doing a horrible job at it. Not only are they not the greatest parents in the world, but they also have the nerve to have two or three babies in two or three different households. It is also to the point where you see more and more grandparents that are in their late thirties and forties, instead of your more traditional fifty or sixty year old grandparents. With all that being said, why is there still a question about parenting and child development courses being taught in high school?

Clearly, we need to stop putting so much focus on the "budget" and start focusing on the future of these kids. We owe it to them.

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