Although the theme of the 14th Annual Parents as Teachers Conference was entitled “Born To Learn,” its hottest topics addressed the crisis of the absent father in many American families.
More than 1,500 people from 45 states and six countries came to St. Louis to learn about ways to support a child’s first and most important teacher, the parents.
“Parents are the single most influential source of learning that a child has,” says Susan Stapleton, president and CEO of Parents as Teachers National Center, which is headquartered in St. Louis.
But the focus for many attendees was on just one parent, the father.
The National Fatherhood Initiative had an extremely strong presence at the conference. Their workshops and speakers produced enormous buzz and crowds.
Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative, told an eager crowd that, in most cases, the father’s role (or lack thereof) affects every aspect of a child’s life.
“Four out of ten children grow up in homes where there is an absent father, and we have to look at the father factor,” said Warren. “Where dads are involved, kids do better across the board.”
Warren offered evidence that the role of the father improves life for the child even in the womb. “When the father is involved, the mother is less likely to smoke and more likely to seek prenatal care,” said Warren.
He continued to make the connection, even in the unlikely health issue of childhood obesity.
“Children in absent-father homes are eleven times more likely to be obese,” said Warren. “Everyone knows that the key factors to maintain a healthy weight are diet and exercise. Mom controls the diet, but who controls the exercise?”
Insights provided by the National Fatherhood Initiative spilled over into another of the most popular workshops, “Teen Parenting Issues and Interventions.” This seminar was standing-room-only, with people lined against the walls.
A video was shown featuring teens participating in parenting programs at Vashon High School. One mother said, “I am afraid that when my child is older, he’s going to look at me and say, ‘Where’s my father?’ and think bad things about me.”
At this year’s conference, there were more than 50 workshops, ranging in topic from homelessness among children to literacy to how to play. There were also hundreds of exhibition booths with items from books to holistic foods and toys. The conference offered tools and strategies that promote healthy development from the very beginning of a child’s life that can follow them until they themselves become parent-teachers.
Though the issue of fathers to some extent stole the show, Parents as Teachers is focused on the child, which Stapleton called “the most important subject in the world.”
The title of the conference, “Born to Learn,” is shared with a curriculum developed by the organization to assist parents with implementing healthy practices for child development from the start, regardless of whether it is a one- or two-parent household.
Parents as Teachers began with four pilot sites in Missouri and has grown to be the nation’s largest private early childhood parent education program, with 3,500 sites world-wide.
Parents as Teachers is accessible to families regardless of economic level. Family participation is voluntary and, in most cases, free. Participants receive personal visits with PAT-certified parent educators, group meetings for support and parental skills development, and screening for early identification of developmental delays or health problems.
For more information about Parents as Teachers, call (866) PAT4YOU (728-4868).
