adolescence - education - faith - knowing - learning - parent - teaching - wisdom - young people

Parent Pond

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Parenting

[ Not ] adolescence

[ And ] adolescents

[ And ] carer

[ And ] caring

[ And ] child

[ And ] childcare

[ And ] children

[ Not ] education

[ Not ] faith

[ Not ] knowing

[ Not ] learning

[ Not ] parent

[ And ] parents

[ And ] success

[ Not ] teaching

[ And ] toddlers

[ Not ] wisdom

[ And ] young

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adolescence education faith knowing learning parent teaching wisdom young people - Parent Pond

The 'Parenting Thing'

June 28th 2008 23:26

Have you ever had one those ‘I sound just like my parents’ moments? It happens to all of us for better or worse.

For the most part we begin our journey as parents doing the parenting thing by modelling our beliefs and actions on the way our parents parented us. This is not unreasonable, considering that we have been immersed in their parenting style for seems forever. However, the societal influences on our own children are quite different from those that influenced us when our parents were doing the parenting thing. This, together with melding of slightly different perspectives of what the parenting thing means, from within our own partnership, leads to the evolution of our own parenting style. For our kids this is probably a good thing, because the matriarch on one side of our the family would advise that "raising kids is like training wild animals" while the other ancestor would say “that child needs a smack!”.

So, when you think about it there is a degree of truth in Frank Pittman’s observations that ...

"the end product of child raising is not the child but the parent"

For parenting is one of those skills in life that: when you embark on the journey you wish that your parents had taught you a few more of the finer details; then somewhere into the journey you seem to never get it right (or so your kids will periodically remind you) so you begin to evolve new approaches; and finally when your fledglings begin to leave the nest many would call you an expert at which point the little voice inside your head says quite loudly “I am, aren’t I!”. It is quite possible that at this point that you regress to being like your parents once again, and treat your adult children as if they are forever 15 years old.

There are no absolutes when it comes down to describing what constitutes a ‘good parent’, however, I believe that a good parent is someone who is able to maintain a positive balance between two extremes on the parenting continuum. At one end are those parents who are so liberal in their approach that they don’t give a toss, while at the other are those who structure their parenting to the n-th degree - the control freaks who closet their children.

While part of being a good parent is about possessing a clear vision of the sort of adult that you want your child to grow into; parenting is, for the most part, about providing our children with the life-skills that will lead them to being effective and contributing members of the community. It is, therefore, incumbent upon each of us to not only assist our children to develop the virtues that will enable them to do so but to also model them consistently. Part of this educative role, as parents, also involves assisting our children to develop the habits of mind that will permit them to look for appropriate resolutions and courses of action to life’s conundrums and moral dilemmas when the answer is not immediately apparent, because we will not always be around to assist them in this regard.

In accepting these responsibilities we must be prepared to acknowledge the fact that our children will, right from the beginning, bring their own personalities into the equation. Therefore, underpinning this philosophy is the golden precept parenting ... to teach your child to love and how to be loved. From this starting point everything else will fall into place.

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Posted By: Richard Cramp - Category: adolescence, adolescents, carer, caring, child, childcare, children, education, faith, knowing, learning, parent, parents, success, teaching, toddlers, wisdom, young, young people

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Childcare fees: Are you getting value for money?

June 24th 2008 12:34

Image from: http://designguidance.lsc.gov.uk/NR/exeres/C850955E-935A-4509-BD1A-99EED628B781.htm

Childcare fees (as reported by Samantha Maiden in The Australian on Tuesday, 23rd June 2008) are set to increase yet again. The article referred to contends that certain childcare centres will increase their childcare fees by nearly 3 times the rate of inflation, and virtually nullify the 50% rebate for many families.

What really irks me about this is that placing a child in a centre is as expensive as sending a school aged child to a moderate to highly priced private school ($13,500 - $25,000 p.a.), and often without the trimmings.

While there are those centres out there that give value for the hard earned money that we pay over, there are also a very large number of centres that are managed for profit, and therefore not providing the level of service that they should. And more often than not this begins with compromising on the integrity of the role performed by group leaders and assistants.

For instance, the average group leader is expected to: provide individual programming for each child in their room; teaching and interact meaningfully with each child under their care; make and record observations of child’s learning experiences (cognitive, social and emotional); set up and clean up each day’s round of activities; supervise play; be pastorally caring of each child; as well as find time to communicate with parents. In additions to which they are also required to maintain bureaucratic records such as what your child ate today, whether you child slept or rested, toileting records, and logs of staff morning tea and lunch breaks. In fulfilling this role, they are paid barely more than the local teenage baby sitter (approx. $17 per hr) for this they work a 38 hour week, get on average a meagre allocation of 1 hour preparation time per week, get 10 minutes for morning tea and 30 minutes for lunch. Ongoing professional development opportunities are often few and far between.

Furthermore, it is also becoming a common practice in many centres for owners and directors to off load additional non-job related duties on to group leaders and assistants, such as the cleaning of toilets, replenishing of toilet paper, and vacuuming of floors. This is where the compromising begins, for the time for these additional activities, and others, is drawn away from the focus time that should be given to our children.

So does your centre make such compromises, turning their focussed and dedicated staff into over stretched babysitters? And if so, what else are they prepared to compromise on?
One very good indicator of a centre that is not prepared to compromise is the rate of staff turnover.

Our children are important so is the quality of care (including the cognitive, social and emotional learnings) they receive in our absence. We therefore have the right to expect our care providers to provide quality programs and focussed attention. Irrespective of whether you are full fee paying parent or a have your fees subsidised you have the right to expect value for money and service that is more than just a bulk babysitting service.

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Helping Children Become Life-long Learners

June 23rd 2008 05:17

"You gotta quit waiting for something to happen and start doing something about it."

~ Anonymous ~

When the world was a much bigger place, the edges of maps were uncertain and Britannia ruled the seas; a slate tablet was kept near the ships helm on which the watch keeper would record the speeds, distances, headings and tacks during the watch. If there were no problems during the watch, the slate would be wiped clean so that the new watch could start over with a clean slate. This is the origin of the expression: starting over with a clean slate.

A key wishes for our children should be for them to be eager and effective life-long learners. Remembering that the effective life-long learner does not rejoice on the hubris of their success, nor do they assume that by simple iteration of action their success will be repeated. Rather, they tend to wipe the slate clean as they look to new and better ways of learning.

Learning Continuously
It is often said that education is about preparing our young people for the future and that is logical, because that is where we will live. The problem is that we do not know precisely what that future will look like, nor what issues we will face â€“ it is not a precise science. Particularly in light of the exponential growth in the given that our children But whatever the future, our community is depending on our young people to be the bearers of the wisdom to carry humanity and society forward with integrity, compassion and faith.

While our children we enjoy a great deal of success which can measured through a wide variety of curricular and co-curricular activities such as (eisteddfods, academic competitions, Sporting competitions as well as the high-stakes curriculum impositions of major exams such as the HSC, VCE, QCS, SATs, etc...). However, it would be a flaw of character if they, or we as parents, were to bask in the hubris of recent or long-term successes and say that they have got it right, that what they are doing, in and out of the classroom, represents best practice. Because learning is a dynamic and intensely social practice, and in a world in which traditional notions concerning the interchange and interplay of information, communication, and educational dynamics is suddenly developing blurred edges we cannot take anything for granted. Therefore, success in any field of endeavour is about having appropriate habits of mind that allows one to adapt their learning rather than just reiterate it.

Consequently, among the core values that we should endeavour to instil in our children is that of the life-long learner. This particular value is not determined by how knowledgeable a person is, just as wisdom is not a function of intellect. Rather, it evolves through the humility of knowing that we don't know. This is one of the highest forms of thinking that anyone will ever learn although paradoxically, unless we start off with humility we will never get anywhere. So as the first step in encouraging children to become effective Life-long learners is to develop within them the virtue of the humility to know, and admit, that there are things that they don't know and not be afraid to find out.

As children develop and refine this form of humility their confidence as a learner grows, which in combination with their natural inquisitiveness opens up a whole new approach to learning as they begin to seek new ways of enhancing their learning processes, and subsequently the depth and quality of the knowledge, understandings and skills that they begin to acquire. As their mastery of this Habit of Mind continues to develop they move into a mode in which they are always striving for improvement, always growing, always learning, always modifying and improving themselves. They seize problems, situations, tensions, conflicts and circumstances as valuable opportunities to learn.

An opportunity to start with a clean slate!
The end of each school term marks an opportunity for every student to reflect on their learning journey to date; to use the down time of the holiday break to and assess their strengths and weakness, and plot new and hopefully profitable courses of action. Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can renew their efforts. In starting over with a clean slate, our goal is to be better today than we were yesterday. A chance to approach life and learning with a new outlook, fresh ideas and have the humility to acknowledge the limits of their knowing and understanding.

Albert Einstein once said insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Now is the time for students to assess whether they are in the habit of doing the same thing over and over again without demonstrating any significant progress and to develop new strategies for a more productive future. Any change in behaviour will inevitably involve a degree of responsible risk taking; this takes courage but if the learning process is to be effective we must be prepared to move beyond our comfort zone and try something different occasionally.

Therefore, we should encourage our children to take on board the advice provided not only through their reports but also by way of the feedback that has accompanied the return of their various assessment tasks. In so doing, they should ask themselves, at the very least, these three questions: What have I learned? What is it that can I do better? What can I do differently?

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Assisting Children Appreciate Different Perspectives

June 22nd 2008 06:24

Learning is ultimately a personal process of understanding the world, other people may be there to help us, teach us, guide us along our path, but the lesson to be learned is always ours; and when we make the finding for our self – even if we're the last person on Earth to see the light – we never forget it.

~ Carl Sagan ~

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Raising Global Citizens: Five Noble Truths

June 20th 2008 12:53

Whatever you are, be a good one!
~Abraham Lincoln~

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The Power of a Single Word

June 17th 2008 12:04

There is a story in the Buddhist teachings entitled “Eight Earthly Winds” , which is retold below...

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Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known

June 14th 2008 08:13

In reference to the myriad of incredible things that are waiting to be known, the late American astronomer, writer and scientist, Dr. Carl Sagan once wrote ...

"The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we know. Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enough to dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles. The water seems inviting. The ocean calls so!"

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Seven Bridges: Parenting a Shared Pilgrimage

June 13th 2008 08:45

As parents we often forget that the basic road map of the journey of growth and development that our children are following is pretty much the same as the journey we ourselves have followed from birth to adulthood. Sure we are living in a very different world to that in which we grew up but while the social influences of the day may vary the bridges that we build to span our developmental needs do not. So it seems appropriate that we should take a moment to reflect on the journey we all share.

This is a journey that has followed a common path and involved the crossing of seven bridges, yet each step of it has been as individual as each us who pace it. The passage across each bridge confronts us as travelers with our own set of unique defining moments, instilling within us a set of indelible virtues and a character stamp that progressively define who we are and how we position themselves in life’s great journey

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