A parenting class to obtain a parenting license should be a required course for everyone.

Licenses are required to complete everyday tasks such as driving or operating a motor vehicle, hunting, fishing, serving alcohol, getting married, or even cutting hair in a salon. You do not need a license, however, to bring another life into this world and raise a child.

I realize that having children is not always a well-thought out plan. Many parents bring another life into the world knowing they are not capable of properly raising another life.  Of course,  I do know that there are responsible and loving parents out there, and there are people who make wonderful parents, but there are also people who have children and raise them irresponsibly which inevitably affects not only the children, but society as well.

Constructive parenting skills are not innate, but rather they are learned behavior based on experiences growing up and, oftentimes, just trial and error.  Requiring a parenting class and obtaining a license could prevent abuse, cruelty, and neglect. Perhaps some parents would better fulfill their obligation and not abuse their children if they had earned the right to raise their child.

Children hold the key to success and change in a society. The education children get from their parents in the initial stages of their life is what impacts the rest of their lives, thus inherently impacting society’s future as a whole. A study by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley categorized the number of words spoken to young children from different socioeconomic groups. Their results not only showed that the complexity of the words differed, but the number of words differed. Children who had professional-level parents were exposed to approximately 1,500 more words per hour than a child who grew up in an impoverished lifestyle. By age four, this reaches a gap of more than 32 million words. A required parenting class in high school may warn more teenagers of the actual consequences, showing them that pregnancy out of wedlock results in a less-stable, lower income environment, thus putting their child at an educational disadvantage from the start.  Through a course like this one, teenagers could  see the risks associated with teenage pregnancy and make choices accordingly.

Why is it that we can only drink after age 21, but can have babies before we are even licensed to operate a motor vehicle? Parents need to realize that their own upbringing should be evaluated before they attempt to bring a life into the world and be productive parents. By requiring a parenting class to obtain a license for parenting, we can attempt to reduce childhood abuse and neglect and warn teenagers of consequences.  Required courses in parenting could not only help to span the socioeconomic gap between impoverished and upper-class but also impact future generations of leaders. Parenting the next generation is a privilege, not a right.