Robert P. Boger

Parent as Teacher: What do We Know?

The concept of parents as teachers represents a large and rapidly expanding volume of literature. The proliferation of research studies, reanalyses, and evaluations require extensive organization and integration to discover what is said. The problem is not a lack of information, but rather the ability to use the information we have. In addition, as Leichter (1974) has noted, “The family is a different subject for inquiry because it is so much a part of everyone’s experience that it becomes hard to avoid projecting one’s own values, beliefs and attitudes onto the experience of others” (p. 215). All of this nothwithstanding, the considerable face validity engendered by the concept of parents as teachers has been supported by powerful empirical evidence (Bronf enbrenner, 1974; Lazar, 1981) supporting the position that parent involvement in the education of the child improves the effectiveness of that education. What follows is not a comprehensive state-of-the-art paper nor a comprehensive review of the parent as teacher literature. It is, however, an attempt to respond to the literature, particularly integrative summaries, and further, to place these in a context that we interpret to be important to their synthesis. We hope by so doing to place them in proper introductory perspective to provide the foundation for what follows in other chapters of the volume.

Child nurturing in the 1980s

Strengthening Social Policies in Behalf of Children and Families.- Perinatal Nurturance: The Beginnings of a Human Relationship.- Child Nurturing and Television in the 1980s.- Children Who Cope: Some Implications for Intervention and Prevention.- Becoming an Adult in the 1980s.- Critical Issues in Moral Development.- Programs and Primers for Childrearing Education: A Critique.- Child and Family Advocacy: Addressing the Rights and Responsibilities of Child, Family and Society.- Child Nurturance: An Agenda for the 1980s.- Author Index.

Volunteering for family strength

This paper describes the development of the volunteer component of the Perinatal Positive Parenting program—a program for parents of firstborns who deliver at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. Effective parenting volunteer service requires energy, interest, and an extraordinary commitment to healthy family relationships. Principles which assure a high level of commitment to the Perinatal Positive Parenting Program are discussed. Recruitment, training, supervision, and evaluation dimensions which specifically support this commitment are also examined.

Perinatal positive parenting: parent support groups

Parent-infant support groups offer first-time parents an opportunity to share their experiences and concerns with each other. This paper discusses the parent groups component of Perinatal Positive Parenting, a program for parents who deliver their first-born children at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. Formation of the support groups follows the programs hospital and in-home components. Group organization, structure, and meeting format are described and the volunteer group leaders role as facilitator is examined.

Child Nurturance: An Agenda for the 1980s

The initial chapter of this book sets a tone that runs through all of the following chapters. This chapter adapted from Edward Zigler’s keynote address at the Michigan State University IYC Conference spoke of “gaps”—gaps between rhetoric and reality when it comes to child nurturance in America. On the one hand, America professes to be a child oriented and caring society; on the other hand, the evidence reflected by the various social indicators mentioned by Zigler and others clearly conveys a contradictory message. This concluding chapter focuses further on these “gaps” and suggests what can be done if we are going to live up to our professed societal goals for our nation’s children.