Family Life Education: The Role of the School

Abstract

If parent education is to be a life-long process it must begin in one form or another during childhood. Views of what schools can and cannot achieve are perhaps more realistic today than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. Little more than 15 000 hours, or 17 per cent of a child’s time awake will actually be spent in school (Rutter, 1979) and the principal and most enduring influences, particularly in the early years, will undoubtedly be his own parents and close family. Nevertheless school does have an important role to play for social, educational and pragmatic reasons:

education in this country has been traditionally concerned with the whole person. Understanding what is involved in preparing for, having, and looking after children is an important aspect of emotional development and personal responsibility;

school is the only place where all future parents can be reached with certainty;

parenthood is a topic which can offer educational material which pupils of all abilities find relevant and motivating, and can contribute to the development of skills in several important areas. (Verdon, 1980)