Glenda P. Simms, Contributor

Simms

The role of formal education in the transformation of the social and economic conditions of the majority of the Jamaican citizenry has been demonstrated daily over our long journey from the slave plantation to contemporary times.

The notion that education is an important part of the development of the individual must be understood by everyone who is responsible for the care and nurturing of children.

In normal circumstances, the majority of our children are born and raised in that revered institution called the family. The family, over time, has taken many forms and constellations. Some of us are born into nuclear families in which a mother and a father are present -- hopefully for much of our lives.

Mother and father

Others are part of extended families which include two or three generations of blood relatives. Many others are reared in single-parent households and a growing number of children live in what is now popularly defined as blended families.

Also, the definition of all family forms is predicated on the reality that every child has a mother and a father. The mother is the one who has the distinction of giving birth to the child and the father is the male whose biological differentiation affords him the potential to produce the sperm which results in the child.

Of course, the biological imperative to produce children is merely the first step to a profound process of nurturing and parenting them in a positive mode to create and maintain the kind of family structure that will be the incubator to prepare our sons and daughters for the world of formal education. The blueprint for success is designed in families that are not defined by one particular form but by a set of core values rooted in a deep understanding of the nature of both adulthood and childhood.

Learning skills

The following ideas serve to demonstrate this point of view:

Positive parenting skills must be learnt by every adult who is responsible for the care of children.

Such persons must be sufficiently well informed to take care of the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of children.

One must be able to communicate and transmit positive vibes to the child before the full development of language skill on the part of the infant.

Children must be spoken to, listened to and all their needs must be responded to with love and patience. This approach will help a child to learn that what he or she thinks or says is important.

The interest shown by parents in children's ideas will prepare them to perform maximally in the formal corridors of the early childhood educational institutions.

Children need parents who are in touch with their own feelings and emotions. These are the parents who will help children to know that humans will have occasions to laugh, cry, hug, touch, embrace and empathise with others.

Children need parents who are comfortable with themselves and who understand the importance of raising children to value and love all the physical features that define them as unique individuals.

Children who are taught to love and validate themselves will be well prepared for a formal educational system that ideally should ensure that every child is placed on a path to self-actualisation and the maximisation of his or her intellectual and social capacities.

Effective parents are those who train their children to resolve conflicts in socially acceptable and peaceful ways. Such children will enter their schools with respect for others and for authority figures. They will also know that confusion and dissent will interfere with their potential to learn in a structured environment.

These ideals of positive parenting are reinforced by the intellectual and observational capacities of scholars who have informed the theoretical and practical approaches that guide the practices of educational practitioners, developmental psychologists and all others who make policies and programmes to educate the nation's children.

However, we are all very aware of the fact that far too many of our children are exposed to family environments which are rendered dysfunctional because of extreme poverty, low levels of literacy, teenage mothers and fathers, absentee fathers, the after-effects of the migration of parents and the continuing erosion of family life.

In order to assist in the face of all these realities, those of us who have had the opportunity to understand positive parenting must reach out and assist all those who need help and support. The time has come for us to become our brother's keeper. It is time to remind the entire society that the family is the first schoolhouse and that parents are the first and most important source of information for eir children.

Dr Glenda P. Simms, a gender expert and consultant, is also a Gleaner columnist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.