# Why don't we have mandatory child rearing course in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 3, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780 "2011-11-03T20:42:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/21 "2011-11-06T16:50:28Z")
> [@SnakesCatLady](#): > > And possibly because some of us, even in high school, knew we weren’t going to have children. Unless it’s a case where serious outside factors are complicating things (large medical issues seem the most likely), I think very, very few highschoolers could meaningfully say they “know” they don’t want children, ever. They might think they don’t want children, and may continue not wanting children for the rest of their lives, but whatever they think at sixteen doesn’t really mean much. People change. I knew I didn’t want kids when I was in high school as certainly as anybody else I knew. ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/22 "2011-11-07T02:55:42Z")
There are programs like the Positive Parenting Program that have been shown to greatly improve parenting and child behaviour. The idea of doing it in school is almost certainly a political non-starter, but the idea that one is either a ‘natural’ parent or not is one I disagree pretty strongly with. You’re not going to turn Hannibal Lecter into a good parent through education, but theres a fair few people who can benefit. Otara ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/23 "2011-11-07T03:33:25Z")
Parent education can be very helpful- for parents. But we have horribly poor retention rates for applied skills that we aren’t actually applying. Think back to high school- you probably remember a lot of the overarching themes- stuff like cosines have something to do with measuring angles, conjugated French verbs gets complicated, the scientific method is the basis of science, and the Panama Canal was a big deal for some reason. But unless you’ve been actually applying these skills, you probably don’t remember how to do a lot of trig, conjugate _pouvoir_, write a lab report or explain the exact circumstances were that made the Panama Canal so important. The last stage of learning, where you truly fully understand something, comes when you integrate knowledge in your everyday life and worldview and use it in practice automatically. An expecting parent or new parent is going to have the chance to do that with parenting classes- they can apply these ideas and get feedback and make sense of how it works in practice. People who have an average of ten solid years before they become a parent are not going to reach that level of learning. At best, they are going to be able to commit some facts to short term memory, with long term retention being spotty and generalized. The overarching themes in parenting are pretty obvious. It’s the details that are helpful to parents, and these are the things that are going to be long forgotten before the vast majority of high school students can use them. If we had all the time in the world, some knowledge is surely better than none, so there would be no reason not to. But classroom time in high school is sharply limited and there just isn’t room for requirements that are not absolutely necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/24 "2011-11-07T12:47:14Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > Ultimately shouldn’t we come up with some consensus that can be taught? Isn’t this something that we can improve on as a society or the status quo perfect as is? Again, no. You can’t come up with something that everyone will agree on. You’re assuming that some type of standard will help in some unspecified way, but you need to support that assertion before we worry about what that standard would be. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/25 "2011-11-07T13:00:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It’s hard enough to get kids to listen to health class stuff that can affect them immediately; in the U.S. the average woman has her first child at age 25, which is seven years after she leaves high school. Agreed. If you are going to teach life skills in class, teach relationship skills. Even if you can’t avoid the whole abstinence/birthcontrol controversy, at least teach about hormones, different ideas of like and love, elementary relationships skills, conflict skills, communication…lots of evidence-based knowledge there and plenty of it avaible in tested on audiences in the format of two-hour seminars. One of the subjects in such a class should be how having a child does and does not affect a young relationship. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/26 "2011-11-07T13:20:09Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > That would have been interesting at my high school. Around 110 students each year “cooperating to raise” maybe two kids. Would each student get two days a year with a kid or something? Would any of the students have preschool siblings that could participate? I suspect not all students would elect to take such a class. You may end up with students that do elect that class that like to care for infants, other totters so they would be able to be placed where their strength is. > [@](#): > > The elective parenting class at my high school did a daycare for about one week a year, I think. I’m pretty sure most of the kids were the children of teachers. But those were all students who _wanted_ to be doing that. How many parents with a real choice in the matter would give up their kid to a bunch of uninterested high school students taking a required course? (I’m not a parent and I plan to never be one, but I can’t see parent-me liking that idea.) Again it would be elective, not required, there is no benefit to having a uninterested student raise a child (better sticking this student in a history class to learn what years go with what wars) I would WAG that parents and teachers/staff and students may find this a better option then daycare. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/27 "2011-11-10T16:14:42Z")
> [@Bizzie](#): > > Hear hear. > > The things people need for child-rearing - patience, love, understanding, compassion, empathy, etc - cannot be taught in the classroom. This. Anyone can learn how to change a diaper, how to fill out paperwork to enroll a child in school, and most people who have gone through a normal childhood can figure out what some appropriate activities are for different age groups (e.g. don’t make your 5-year-old read “Little Women”, because it’s too advanced). If they don’t know, there are plenty of resources at hand (call your parents, call the local park/library, ask neighbors). ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/28 "2011-11-12T17:01:48Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > How many parents with a real choice in the matter would give up their kid to a bunch of uninterested high school students taking a required course? Would they need to find parents who **wanted** to do it? People love the idea of making rules about poor people can and can’t do, right down to wanting to dictate exactly what they can eat/drink if on food stamps, so I could see a fair amount of support for tying receiving welfare benefits to cooperating with allowing high schoolers to use their kids in a teaching fashion. Free daycare for _those people_ so they can’t say daycare costs too much to make working worthwhile, lots of potential walking and talking teaching tools, what could go wrong pols would naively ask when proposing it… ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/29 "2011-11-12T17:31:45Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > Why don’t we have, say, required mandatory high school child rearing course like US History? US History must be a short course. The girls in my high-school class were required to attend a course for a semester learning how to care for babies and younger children. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/30 "2011-11-14T19:06:07Z")
I think that the O.P.has a very good idea. It would be nice if potential parents were given lessons in the basic economics of child rearing. Then maybe at least some people with no realistic chance of paying for their childs feeding and clothing might delay having a family until they can actually support it themselves. Also it might stop the whining of those who complain of their abject poverty (and expect the rest of us to relieve that poverty )while having more and more children. As though having children is inevitable, and that they have no control of child after child being born to them. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/31 "2011-11-14T19:14:42Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Always the way with the suggestions for teaching [whatever] at school. There’s a reason it’s “always the way”; because it’s a really good question that has to be answered. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/32 "2011-11-15T05:08:22Z")
Why, I thank you, Lust4Life! I was feeling awfully lonely. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/33 "2011-11-16T19:32:45Z")
Because the parents in this [video](http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/baby-dangled-out-of-car-window?xrs=share_copy) don’t need no stinking lessons. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/34 "2011-11-16T20:03:06Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > Ultimately shouldn’t we come up with some consensus that can be taught? Isn’t this something that we can improve on as a society or the status quo perfect as is? That idea has already been thought of, tried, and abandoned. [Cornell’s web page about practice houses and practice babies.](http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/cases/apartments.html) ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/35 "2011-11-16T20:11:06Z")
Never liked babies or young children much, and had no intention of having any. Not surprisingly, 30 years since high school and I’ve stopped hitting the snooze on my biologial alarm clock and still have no kids. I would have had zero interest in a parenting class in high school and probably would not have been a good choice to leave small children with anyway. Making it mandatory? Guess I would have endured it the same way I endured gym. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/36 "2011-11-20T14:47:35Z")
What? You guys never had to egg-sit or flour-sit in Health Class as part of An Important Lesson in How Hard It Is To Be a Parent? I at least know that when I was going to school, they still taught general life skills like how to balance a checkbook, and I hear Home Economics is making a comeback now that it’s not exclusive to girls. As far as I know, Childrearing would probably only be an elective (as in, you’re not required to take it to pass high school), and many schools won’t offer certain electives if they don’t think it’s worth justifying the cost. There’s also the dicey political issue of this being seen as an endorsement of teen pregnancy (see also: the controversy surrounding giving teenagers condoms). ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/37 "2011-11-20T17:28:56Z")
> [@dotchan](#): > > What? You guys never had to egg-sit or flour-sit in Health Class as part of An Important Lesson in How Hard It Is To Be a Parent? Nope, never. While sex ed was required as a part of ‘health’ class, home ec was an elective. They did do the fake baby thing though. The honors kids didn’t take home ec because they would have had to get rid of things that were important for college (e.g. taking a foreign language). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/38 "2011-11-20T17:40:14Z")
> [@dotchan](#): > > I at least know that when I was going to school, they still taught general life skills like how to balance a checkbook, and I hear Home Economics is making a comeback now that it’s not exclusive to girls. Everybody had to take it when I was in middle school. It was a half-year course that alternated with the a sex ed class. There was no checkbook balancing and no baby related stuff that I can remember. We made French toast and did some sewing. It was pointless and if it were an elective I think the only reason anyone would have taken it was for an easy grade. These days I think the practice baby stuff is confined to sitcoms written by people who haven’t been in school in a few decades or think that’s what the class is like based on sitcoms _they_ saw. Maybe you can see where this relates to my lack of confidence that a child rearing course would be worth teaching. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780/39 "2011-11-20T18:07:25Z")
I took Home Ec as an elective when I was in high school. It was one semester, and all we did was: 1. Make an apron 2. Make beef jerkey 3. Make Welsh Rarebit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-have-mandatory-child-rearing-course-in-school/601780.md?page=1)