By Peter Schmedding
One of the topics that the media presents to us ever so often is Education. On the positive side, Education Minister Verity Firth in a recent ABC broadcast remarked that “ ... Parents are obviously trusting the public school system to provide their children with the highest quality of education."
In contrast, under the title ‘Our schooling shame’, Australian of the year Professor Mick Dodson remarked “That every child deserves a good education, and that a country as prosperous as this one should be able to provide it, are things we have agreed on for a long time - and yet we still can't do it”.
Bordering on insulting the Australian School System, however, is the opinion of media baron Rupert Murdoch in the forth part of the ABC’s Boyer lectures. In this talk he states “...our public education systems are a disgrace.” He mentioned the word ‘school’ 61 times, while parents hardly get a mention at all.
All those opinions seem to imply that transforming our young students into successful future citizens depends entirely on the education our children receive in schools.
Is there a missing link?
Even the most capable school system can only build on the personality that has been created by the child’s parents in the home. For better or for worse, it is the parents who are their children’s prime educators. Their attitudes toward education and society set the blue print for their child's later involvement and performance.
And that starts early in life.
Studies in prenatal psychology reveal that the personality of the future adult is influenced by the mother’s mental state during pregnancy even as far back as the first trimester. Lifelong depression - a close relative of suicidal tendencies - has been reported in cases that have been traced back to traumatic events experienced by the mother long before the child had been born. This has been supported by British psychiatrist Dr. Frank Lake who "... would decide that the first trimester of one's life was more important than any other period."
Well-known are those cases where a child is beyond any control and, in spite of punishments, behaves in ways that are unacceptable if not even dangerous. Leaving diet and genetic predisposition aside, one may speculate in how many cases such a condition might be due to an unsuspected cause long before they see the light of day.
This knowledge is not new. Noted Australian psychologist Dr. Lyn Barrow wrote about the importance of the mother's mental state during pregnancy in one of his books as early as 1977.
After birth the child's all-over important personality development continues . How the primary needs are met becomes one of the first stepping stones toward the feeling of self worth and security. For the infant, more early learning materials are available than ever before. The value of books and reading to the young child cannot be overstated. Appropriate stimulation, imaginative games, discussions and musical activities enrich the child's mind and create curiosity about the world around us. The reward appears in the years that follow. A more confident child that has been prepared for life will enjoy and take advantage of what the school experience has to offer.
We will all agree that the best environment for rearing a child is a secure home with a mother and a father. In our time. in many cases. this is not the norm anymore. Many single parents are working long hours and do not have the emotional and physical energy to care adequately for their child. Those children miss out on quality time with at least one adult, or sharing the wonders of our world from nature to art, from science to technology.
The most pitiful cases are boys growing up without a male model in their lives. While there are mentors to fill the need, ever so often they will refrain from offering their services considering that everyone who shows an interest in children is suspected of harbouring sinister motives. While the children have to pay the price for this new-age hysteria, a future generation hopefully might be able to deal with child abuse in a more constructive manner. I have discussed this problem in detail elsewhere.
Children, ever so often have great difficulty talking to their parents about their real concerns. Sometimes a counsellor or a trusted stranger might learn about a child's inner life, hopes, fears or concerns that the parents would be surprised to hear about.
To illustrate, it is questionable if kids can ever divorce themselves from the effects of their family's problems. That may be parental disharmony or financial troubles, substance abuse or domestic violence. Furthermore, the effects of belittling and insulting remarks, low expectations and labelling the child accordingly, emotional isolation or just feeling bad about themselves belong to factors that lead to depression. No one might be aware when they, like a millstone around their necks, take this emotional ballast to school. Consequently they are unable to concentrate on the work in the classroom. Then the teacher will accuse them for not being attentive and with blame and punishments the downward spiral continues.
Is it now right to say, quoting Murdoch’s Boyer lecture 4: "And they (schools) cannot make excuses for why some students are supposedly poor scholars. ."?
Having worked in many of Canberra's schools over the years I am aware of how genuine efforts by teachers can be eroded by uninterested, unprepared students. One can only guess how those teachers must feel when they listen to the said lecture and hear that " ... our public education systems are a disgrace."
That, however, takes us right to the point of this discussion: No one would argue that a better education system would take us a step further towards competing successfully with those of some distant lands. But don't let us overlook the principle factor: It is parents' task to show positive attitudes to their child, to life and learning. They establish responsibility and a realistic self esteem. Once a sound foundation for education has been instilled in our children's minds, as they enter school the chances to succeed and the prospects for their future are assured.
That is the missing link in the education of our next generation.
It would be a hard sell to suggest that some principles of parenting should become part of the curriculum in the upper primary grades. That is the time when the minds of children are still receptive. Combined with learning how to think, how the meaning of words sometimes deceives us, and some fundamental interpersonal skills in the deal, would go a long way toward the precious EQ (Emotional Quotient) that appears to be missing in many of our young people. It would give the new generation a head start in the difficult task that is parenting. That takes us to the last point:
Advances and diversity in areas such as medicine, the sciences and technology in recent decades has given young people opportunities in many occupations that never before existed in the history of mankind.
To prepare children to become part of that demands, above all, emotional health. That is a realistic self esteem, a sense of optimism and survival in an evermore complex world. Emotional health, above all, is freedom from emotional ballast and that is fostered by the child's honest, open communication with at least one responsible adult and in all areas of life.
In that sense I finish by quoting the internationally renowned late Dr. Lee Salk. In one of his books he expressed it this way:
"What shocks me is that so little emphasis has been placed on services to prevent and diagnose emotional health problems... relatively little effort is directed toward assisting those who are primarily responsible for the personality development of infants and young children – their parents.”