Letters to the Editor

Training for new mothers

Dec 6, 2007 5:22 PM

To the Editor:

(The following letter was sent to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.)

Re: Parent Education for mothers in the LYFE program.

I wish to inform you of an educational need that has been neglected and could be met with no additional expenditures.

The LYFE program that allows young mothers the opportunity to continue their educations while they leave their toddlers in school, on site, is an excellent program. Recently, while working as a per-diem teacher I was quite pleased to witness the high level of care that was given to the toddlers at the centers at Bed Stuy Prep and the one at EBC HS.

However, it has come to my attention that the parent education component has not been included in the present program. I found this hard to understand since, as you are well aware, a lack of basic knowledge regarding good child-rearing practices could result in the death or serious injury of a child. For example, levels of child abuse or unintentional abuse are very preventable with a proper parent education program as well as other things that parents can do to help their child grow and develop in a healthy and sound manner.

As you may be aware this component had been included in the P schools, but the P schools have been closed down.

There is an early day on Wednesdays, when school ends at about 1:15 p.m. The paras are still in school. There is no reason why the attending teacher could not offer an hour of parent education to the young mothers at that time.

When I was at EBC today, I informally asked the young mothers if they would be receptive to the idea of staying once a week and almost every one of them indicated that they would be happy to.

Frankly, I fail to understand why the powers that be have neglected this glaring need and have failed to provide this service.

As a long-time child advocate I believe that parent education, especially for the mothers in the LYFE program, is urgently needed. It is tragic that it seems to have been overlooked in the recent reorganization of the program.

Roy Sicular, per-diem teacher