Parents are the first to guide children in their individual, social, academic and professional development, as they are the first point of contact for their youngsters. Even when they grow up and enter a formal educational program, parents are still important actors in providing children with education and guidance in life. This is why, it is recommended designing a family life educational (FLE) program that addresses parent education and guidance. This FLE program would provide an understanding of how parents teach and influence their children and adolescence to make sound decisions throughout their life. The program is also intended to grasp the changing nature and dynamics that influence the relationship between parents and children across the lifespan, pointing out different communication strategies and parental approach to educating and guiding their children (National Council on Family Relations, 2015).
There are various educational needs for families and individuals that can be covered, but this particular FLE on parent education and guidance has a high potential for providing sustainable development for youngsters, but also for the entire family, as a unit. This is the main reason for which I chose this topic, although there are other topics that can be integrated in this program, to offer a wider understanding of the role of parents in children’s education and guidance, such as family life methodology or professional ethics and practice.
Nevertheless, unlike these topics or others that were available for designing the FLE program, the parent education and guidance is more closely related with the academic field, which I consider important for the children and teenagers’ development and their advancement into adulthood. Knowing how parents can guide or educate children on making informed decisions about their future and avoiding the imposition of their own life prospects on their children, without considering their inclinations or desires is essential, hence another reason for which I chose this topic.
I often speak with people who complain about doing something else than they would have liked to profess as adults, arguing that they were imposed a certain career by their parents. One acquaintance of mine wanted to become a teacher, but her parents promoted her in another direction, pursuing professional development in accounting, currently working in this field. She is not satisfied and does not find herself in this profession, which is why she is currently pursuing a secondary education for becoming a teacher. Examples like this illustrate that there is a need for parents to know how to best educate and guide their children, in order to be satisfied with their life choices and not to regret their paths in life.
On the other hand, there is the reverse of this situation, wherein parents do not involve in their children education and personal development, either because they are too busy or because they do not realize that they should provide this type of support to their children (Mapp, 2003). Without parental involvement, children and adolescents tend to develop a feeling of being lost or even deprived of the parental affection, especially when seeing their colleagues’ parents getting involved in their education, which can affect their development.
In these situations, both in the case of extensive involvement and in the situations of minimal involvement, children and adolescents are affected and the parental education and guidance style of their caregivers can further influence their own, as parents, or leave them unprepared for this responsibility (Mapp, 2003). Therefore, a program that can teach parents on how to provide a sustainable education and guidance for the sound development of their children is required in order to break the chain of improper parental involvement and for shaping children and adolescents into responsible adults.
There are currently similar programs that treat the parent education and guidance, such as “Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters”, “Parents as Teachers”, “Parents Effectiveness Training”, among others (Powell & Cassidy, 2006). Although they share the interest for education and guidance, they have different focuses, as their names suggest. The FLE parent education and guidance will differ from other programs due to its concern on monitoring the parent-child relationship across the lifespan, highlighting different dynamics that appear at certain times, and teaching parents how to approach education and guidance of the children according to different ages.
As a result, participants are expected to assimilate their rights and responsibilities in educating and guiding their children by appropriating parenting practices and processes meant to improve the parent – child relationship (Powell & Cassidy, 2006). Furthermore, by participating in this program, parents and other caregivers, will learn different parenting styles associated with different psychological, social and behavioral outcomes, which can be applied in different stages across childhood and adolescence development (National Council on Family Relations, 2015). Nonetheless, participating in this program will enrich the parenting experience, improving the relationship and communications between parents and children.
The parent education and guidance program mainly targets parents or any other caregivers (grandparents, or any other adults with parenting responsibilities), which are also beneficiaries of the envisioned FLE program. This category of population is the right audience because they are the primary responsible of their children development. This means that it is important for parents to know how they can actively participate in the educational process and life guidance of their children, in order to assure a harmonious development.
A secondary targeted audience is composed of teachers and educators, who should ideally partner with parents for fostering a sustainable development through suited education and guidance (Mapp, 2003). This category is the right audience of the educational program, because they are the next in line to assure children and adolescents’ education and life guidance. Furthermore, in cases wherein children and adolescents have parents who manifest excessive or minimal involvement in educating and guiding their children, teachers and educators should temper the excessive involvement or should encourage a more responsible parental implication.
As for the approach of delivering the information of this program, a face to face format is considered to be suited, because it will allow the parents to challenge the information presented, engaging them in active discussions about their involvement in children and adolescents’ education and guidance. This program will also allow the participants to exchange opinions and to interact with other parents. In addition, having also educators and teachers among the participants means that the meetings will be balanced, as members of each targeted group can address their concerns or ideas about how they could work together for the benefit of the children and teenagers.
The topics covered within this program will address a wide array of aspects regarding parent – child relationship. Among these, the program will address the parents’ involvement in children and adolescents’ formal and informal education – how they can actively participate in a balanced (non – excessive, non - minimal) manner. This topic will provide a wide and balanced array of parental involvement in children and teenagers’ education, but also a specific focus on education, which is why it is important to cover it during the program. Other topics covered include “Parenting Rights and Responsibilities”, “Parenting Practices/Processes”, “Parent/Child Relationships”, “Variation in Parenting Solutions” or “Changing Parenting Roles across the Lifespan” (National Council on Family Relations, 2015). These topics are recommended for making the participants aware of their rights and responsibilities as parents, of the dynamics of the parents/children relationships and the different roles of parents across children development. They are also useful for guiding parents through best practices and solutions when dealing with the education and guidance of their children. Together, these topics will create an exhaustive program, providing theoretic information, but also practical recommendations for improving parents’ involvement in children’s education and guidance.
For making the program stronger, it will be needed to engage educators, child psychologists, adult learning trainers and governmental involvement for supporting the funding of the program. In addition to governmental funding, other sources of funding can come from the private sector, from corporations engaged in sustaining a balanced life – work program (Powell & Cassidy, 2006).
The program’s strength is that it will affirm and confirm the parents’ desire to contribute to their children education (Mapp, 2003). Another strength of the program is that it will provide parents the opportunity to interact with other parents, but also with educators, having also the possibility of learning from best practices and various scenarios presented during the program. The parents and the educators will be more informed on how to approach the children and teenagers’ education and guidance at different stages of their development, hence, it better prepares them for future challenges, which is another strong point of this program. As weaknesses of the program, there can be mentioned the fact that it lacks children involvement and participation, which could have represented an opportunity to gather the youngsters’ insights and desires regarding their parents’ involvement in their education and guidance.
This program will turn results on a long – term basis, which will be visible in the process of development of children and teenagers into adults. However, it will be possible to assess whether it met its goals on a gradual basis, by involving the educators, who can report whether parents get involved in the students’ education and guidance in a balanced manner.
Although the classical role of educating children and teenagers pertains to educators, parents have, nevertheless, a stringent role in the education and guidance throughout the lifespan of their children. The parent education and guidance FLE program contributes to a balanced involvement of parents in the development of their children, which will help them in making sound decisions for a sustainable future.
References
Mapp, K.L. (2003) Having their say: Parents describe why and how they are engaged in their children’s learning. The School Community Journal. 13(1):35-64.
National Council on Family Relations (2015) Family life education content areas: Content and practice guidelines. Minneapolis: National Council on Family Relations.
Powell, L.H. & Cassidy, D. (2006) Family life education: Working with families across the life span. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.
