[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 24, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3883]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PREPARE TOMORROW'S PARENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the fourth 
national Prepare Tomorrow's Parents Month, the month between Mother's 
Day and Father's Day. This month is a time for teachers, parents and 
youth group leaders nationwide to promote parenting education and 
relationship skills classes for all young people.
  Prepare Tomorrow's Parents Month is being sponsored by a national 
nonprofit organization formed in 1995 called Prepare Tomorrow's 
Parents. Suzy Garfinkle Chevrier, founder and president of Prepare 
Tomorrow's Parents, says, ``Parenting is not a hobby. It is the most 
important work most of us will ever do. Let's not leave our 
grandchildren's future to chance.''
  Is it not strange, Mr. Speaker, that one of the most important and 
difficult skills, raising children, goes untaught? Learning parenting 
skills is vital because the early experiences of children's lives 
impact their potential for learning and for mental health. We need to 
create better parents because neglected or abused children are 
especially prone to perpetuate this cycle when they become adults 
without resources for healthy parenting.
  An alarming number of children are at risk of being abused, neglected 
or otherwise poorly nurtured by inadequately prepared or nonsupportive 
parents. Inadequate parenting can contribute to teen pregnancy, 
depression, addictions, academic failure, delinquency and, later, 
criminal behavior.
  I imagine that the vast majority of adults in the United States 
believe that parenting and relationship skills should be taught. Yet 
few students now receive this instruction. School-based parenting 
education programs can help to prevent future child abuse and work to 
build healthy children by developing an understanding of child 
development in future parents and by providing parenting skills such as 
empathy, listening, problem solving and critical thinking. Regardless 
of how much detail the young people remember from their classes by the 
time they become parents, the instruction gives them a deep sense of 
the reality of parenting, of the sacrifices and demands as well as the 
joys. Prepare Tomorrow's Parents is a group working towards a society 
in which every child is well-nurtured and parenting is valued and 
undertaken by prepared adults.
  Parenting education for students is being taught successfully in many 
schools around the Nation, primarily through family and consumer 
science classes, but not enough young people, especially boys, 
participate in these elective courses. Expanding and requiring these 
classes will save many more current and future families much heartache. 
It will help us to help our young people succeed at being parents that 
will make them, their children and their parents happy, productive and 
proud.
  Finally, establishing parent education classes honors the work of 
mothers and fathers by teaching our young people what a complex effort 
it takes to raise a child. As well as learning new skills, they will 
begin to appreciate more and more the care they have received from 
their parents.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Prepare Tomorrow's Parents for sponsoring 
Prepare Tomorrow's Parents Month.

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