The following is a letter I sent to Dr. Jack Shonkoff of Harvard University.
Dr. Shonkoff,
My name is David Dooley. Wednesday during the National Press Foundation webinar you answered a question I submitted. The question was…
”In an effort to prevent the aces associated with unsupportive and harmful parenting, should public health organizations be developing a new kind of parenting education...one that reaches everyone, everywhere, all the time. Perhaps parenting education campaigns akin to the smoking and seatbelts campaigns of the past. Perhaps multi-media public health messaging that teaches parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting the healthy development of children.”
You replied,
“I really appreciate that question. It's a very important question. We naturally gravitate toward the fact that providing information and education for people will do good, and that can, in this case, enhance the development and the health of young children. For parts of the population, that's absolutely correct. But for parts of the population, and this is not only is it good science here, but your grandmother could tell you this. So, if a parent is dealing with the stresses of not being able to put food on the table and not being able to keep a roof over your head, and dealing with violent relationships, providing information about how it's important to read to your child and talk to your child is... I'm not underestimating the importance of that information, but why would anybody expect that just providing that kind of information is going to turn people's lives around? If it did, we would be in a very different place. The issue about parenting education is, parents have to be in a position to be able to use that information, use that education. If they're consumed with dealing with extraordinary stresses of everyday life, we need to do something about reducing those stresses in order to be able to benefit from the increased information.”
I have summarized your response in a couple of sentences.
You stated that the portion of the population who are in a safe relationship, have a roof over their heads, and enough to eat will benefit from this new kind of parenting education, and conversely that the portion of the population who aren’t in a safe relationship, who don’t have a roof over their heads, and who don’t have enough to eat won’t benefit.
Because you are a man of science and as someone who must be aware of the history of humankind I am very disappointed in your answer.
Here are three of my concerns.
1. Does this mean that we must wait for a utopia where everyone’s needs are met to commence this new kind of public health parenting education?
2. People have for thousands of years learned all sorts of things while experiencing hardships. Indeed, often the most important lessons are learned during stressful times.
3. I believe you aren’t taking the long view. Proactive, public health parenting education could become the defining characteristic of our culture...a characteristic that would prevent the trauma of unsupportive and harmful parenting five, ten, twenty, fifty years down the road. In time it would transform communities.
Please thoughtfully consider my concerns. Dismissing, without good reason, the idea of public health style parenting education would be a disservice to all children, families, and communities.
Yours,
David Dooley
Advancing Parenting
661-477-1513
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