A Short Course on Parenting Teaches Students Essential Social-Emotional Skills

Focused on our mission to prepare all students for success in college and careers, it’s easy to overlook the fact that some instruction on caregiving would be useful.

Katharine Bensinger took on a request from a student club and ended up with some prestigious partners in the creation of ParentABLE, an evidence-based curriculum that has been piloted with hundreds of students statewide. The parenting education program is free for districts to opt into, and ParenTeach offers six Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) through TeachIllinois.org for educators who implement ParentABLE.

Transcript

RHODES  0:02  

Hello, we are the Illinois State Board of Education, and we love Illinois schools. I'm Dusty Rhodes, part of the Public Relations team at ISBE. Our job as preK-12 educators is to prepare all our students to succeed in life. But how well do we prepare them to become good parents? Many schools have students take home a mechanical doll to get a quick introduction to the physical needs of babies. Now, a weeklong program called ParentABLE is available to help students learn the social emotional skills needed to become good caregivers. I sat down with the program's creator, Katherine Bensinger, to learn more about it.

BENSINGER  0:41  

I'm Katherine Bensinger, and I'm the founder and CEO of Parent Teach Institute.

RHODES 0:48  

That's an organization that has currently three programs, if I'm correct, Parenting Essentials, Parenting Fundamentals, and ParentABLE. So, tell me about those three programs and what order you created them in?

BENSINGER  1:07  

Sure. The first program is called Parenting Fundamentals and that was founded in 1996. I created that out of a community mental health center. As a therapist, I was seeing families in family therapy, and I realized that a lot of the issues with the children were as a result of unintentional harmful parenting practices. So, in order to strengthen the parent child relationship, and really help relieve the symptoms that the child was going through -- whether that was anxiety, depression, school phobia, suicide ideation -- really was to help improve the family relationship. So that gave me the impetus to start Parenting Fundamentals back in 1996.

RHODES  1:54  

And then Parenting Essentials?

BENSINGER 1:56  

Parenting Essentials is an iteration, a very short sort of appetizer parenting education course that was adapted from Parenting Fundamentals. That course is one hour, and it's geared for parents with children (ages) 0-5, in English and Spanish. It's taught through a series of videos, parenting scenarios, and then questions, following the videos.

RHODES  2:22  

Okay, and then when did you create ParentABLE?

BENSINGER  2:26  

So ParentABLE was created in 2017 and actually, that was a student-driven initiative that has an amazing story. My children grew up watching me, well, really seeing my passion, which is parenting and caregiving education. So when my daughter was in high school at Evanston Township High School, she started a club called the CARE Club: Child Abuse Recognition, Evanston. And they were building awareness on child abuse, the club was, and they came to where I worked as one of their volunteer activities. It was the students who said, “Why are we not learning these parenting caregiving competencies in high school before we become caregivers, or parents, if we decide to be parents?” So, they're the ones who spearheaded this with their superintendent at Evanston Township High School, and a pilot resulted in 2018.

RHODES  3:22  

Okay, and that was 500 students in that pilot, do I have that correct? 

BENSINGER  3:28  

Yes.

RHODES  3:29  

Were they all in Evanston?

BENSINGER  3:30  

All in Evanston. All of them went to Evanston Township High School. Five hundred kids who were taking health class, which is a requirement for graduation, so a very diverse population of students. And the outcomes were very positive. We did pre and post tests. So, we assessed their knowledge before and after the course. We asked their feedback, what they thought of the course, we even asked them if they thought it was necessary to learn these skills in high school. Ninety seven percent said that these skills are necessary to learn in high school and preparation for life.

RHODES  4:06  

So, tell me what's entailed in the course. It's a unit, it's not an entire semester. Correct?

BENSINGER  4:13  

Exactly. It's a unit of instruction, and it's six and a half hours long. So, it can easily be taught in a health class. It can be taught for two weeks, if two weeks are available in a health class or even as short as one week. So, it's a short course in it and it's based on competencies that spell the word PARENTS, which is patience, awareness, role modeling, esteem, nurturing, timely and consistent discipline, and self-care. 

So, the course, so the students really leave the unit, I'm calling it a course because it's so important that it deserves that name, but a unit of instruction, and they leave the unit, knowing the acronym PARENTS, which are really important positive parenting competencies. 

They also learned the difference between discipline and punishment, because often they're confused. They learn about what are called Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACEs, and everybody has at least one ACE, it's very rare if you don't have an ACE. An example of an ACE is if your parents divorced, or if you had an incarcerated parent, or if you have lost a parent. So, we talk about ACEs: adverse childhood experiences, and, and how they can be potentially detrimental to your health, and academic achievement and your future. But we really dive into resilience, and the power of resilience and the power of getting support in your community, from your teacher, from professional counselors or therapists in how we can overcome any ACEs that we may have, so that we can really live up to our full potential.

RHODES  6:02  

I'm curious, you mentioned that it was taught in a health class. Is it always taught in a health class? I feel like I've seen it also taught in CTE. But is there some class that it fits in better? I mean, is health the only class that it fits in?

BENSINGER  6:17  

That's a really good question. For the pilot, it has been taught in so many different classes; it fits in Career and Technical Education, it fits in a childcare course, it fits in a child development course. So, because we taught across the state of Illinois and over 50 high schools in the Northern, Central and Southern region of the state, we taught in alternative schools as small as five kids in a classroom to huge schools like Homewood-Flossmoor and New Trier High School, Evanston Township with up to 3,000 students. 

So, we really got an opportunity to pilot it -- not only in different size high schools, different socio-economic families, but also in different courses, like Family and Consumer Science and Career and Technical Education. They fit in a lot of courses, so many courses, which is wonderful. But the very best place for this unit of instruction is in a health class. The reason is because every student takes health in order to graduate high school, and it's a competency that you really need to have before you leave high school.

RHODES  7:27  

Now, time out one second. I want to get a good timeline here because you talked about 500 students and a pilot at Evanston. But now you're talking about Homewood-Flossmoor and New Trier and a lot of other schools. When did that happen?

BENSINGER  7:43  

Yes, so the pilot was so successful in 2018 at Evanston Township High School with the 500 students that we spearheaded legislation, constituent legislation with State Representative Robyn Gable, to pilot the course across the state of Illinois. So, legislation passed unanimously in the House and the Senate, and a pilot program ensued in 2018 for three years, three consecutive years. 

RHODES  8:15  

My reading of the legislation that passed in 2018, was that it was not a mandate, it was an option for school districts to use this program. And it said that it allows the state board to make grants to school districts that apply to participate in the pilot program. And so how many districts took that opportunity to use this program?

BENSINGER  8:44  

So, we've taught so far in over 50 high schools in the three years, and I think we're at maybe close to 40 counties across the state of Illinois.

RHODES  8:58  

Where were they? Who downstate took advantage of this opportunity? I bet Collinsville was one.

BENSINGER 9:04  

Collinsville, for sure, is one of the is the districts. Absolutely. We have a lot of downstate districts where we're teaching the course. 

RHODES 9:16  

What's the cost to districts that want to do this? Does it cost them money?

BENSINGER 9:21  

Right now, we're under a grant from the Illinois State Board of Ed that are granting school districts the funding for this for these courses. So, at the moment, they're free to all school districts across the state.

RHODES 9:38  

Do we know whether or not, the grant will be extended?

BENSINGER 9:41  

The grant's been extended. Yes, for three years, and this is the first year of three. It was originally three years. It's been extended three years.

RHODES 9:51  

All right. And I noticed that you've got endorsement from some pretty big names. Meredith Rowe, who's a professor of early learning and development at Harvard. And Dr. Bruce Perry, who has written several books and his latest book he co-authored with someone named Oprah Winfrey. 

BENSINGER 10:13  

Yes. 

RHODES 10:16  

Wow. How did you bring your program to their attention?

BENSINGER 10:22  

Well, Dr. Meredith Rowe at Harvard, she is the chair of the early childhood development, early childhood education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We were in the process of doing a lit review. We wanted to see if there were any parenting programs across the state of the, across the country that were teaching parenting in high school. We didn't find any, but we did find a dissertation written by a student at Harvard in 2019. Nell O'Donnell, and she did her PhD on the importance of teaching parenting in high school. So, it was a theoretical paper about the need for it. I read the dissertation in a weekend, and reached out to Harvard, and Meredith called me back right away. I said that we are doing a parenting program in high schools, and she was so excited because we were doing what the dissertation had spoken about the need for. So, we immediately went into partnership, and she's been our research partner for two years. 

So, we have an external evaluation on this program in Illinois. So, we teach the course in Illinois, but the evaluators are external and, and it's Dr. Meredith Rowe from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. So, it's a fabulous partnership.

RHODES 11:48  

That's a great story. That's, that's kismet, right there. Okay, and Dr. Perry?

BENSINGER 11:54

Dr. Perry, so I have been going to his lectures for 20 years in Chicago. I've gotten to hear him speak multiple times. He was a huge mentor of mine. He influenced the development of parenting fundamentals, the program that started in 1996. What I learned from his lectures influenced the curriculum that we wrote over those 20 years. I had an opportunity to meet him in person a couple years ago, at Prevent Child Abuse America's 50 Year Gala.

They had their 50-year anniversary of their existence. Prevent Child Abuse America has chapters across the country and Prevent Child Abuse Illinois was hosting the gala for the 50-year anniversary. Dr. Bruce Perry is chair of their board. He's on the board to Prevent Child Abuse America. 

So, I approached him, and I told him about our work, teaching parenting and caregiving education in high schools, and if he would be interested in being in our documentary, as a subject matter expert. He said yes, because he himself had tried to implement this kind of programming in high school many years ago. Due to staff turnover, it didn't stick. So, when he heard about what we were doing, he was really excited because his philosophy is similar. Which is: if we start early, if we get to youth before they develop their parenting and caregiving methodologies, and we give them evidence-based skills, it can really be a game changer for society.

RHODES 13:32

I loved in that documentary, which is a 12-minute video on your website, that he continually points out how these skills are relevant, even if you're never going to be a parent, because they would make you a better team member, a better boss, just a better person to be in line next to at the coffee shop. They just teach you relationship skills, and how to take care of other people.

BENSINGER 14:03  

Yes, that is exactly true. And he articulated very well. They help you be a better, like you said, boss, employer, employee, friend, citizen.

RHODES 14:18  

But I don't know that we can get that made into a unit of instruction, but parenting, yes.

BENSINGER 14:23  

The feedback the teachers gave us, and the students really rewrote the curriculum, and then we evaluated it with an external evaluator. Is this helping students? Do they find it useful? Can they implement it immediately? It doesn't matter if they're never, like you mentioned, they may never become parents, but they'll always care for someone, a grandparent, a sibling, a friend, a neighbor. And is it helpful? We collected the data to show that not only are the students learning these SEL, these social emotional learning and health and wellness competencies, but they're gaining really important skills that they can implement immediately. So, the evaluation speaks for itself. 

And we were blessed to be able to do what's called a randomized control study, which is a more rigorous evaluation with Harvard. Where we had students who did not take the parenting education unit and then students who did, and we compare their data. We have done a more rigorous evaluation to show those students’ scores pre and post, who were not exposed to this curriculum and those students who were and if there is statistically significant improvement in understanding these competencies and learning parenting and caregiving education. We've learned so much, and so we really have, we listened to ISBE's recommendation, and we came back with real strong evidence of the need for this.

RHODES 15:59  

And, of course, probably the biggest data would be years down the line. And it would be in the ACEs that you're that you talked about, that the course teaches you to recognize, and whether, or not these students who take the course become parents who, whose children don't have ACEs.

BENSINGER 16:24  

Absolutely. And if you'll indulge me, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to read one, one quote for you now, because whenever a school district signs up to teach the unit of instruction, they give a reason why in their application. So, we ask, why would you like to teach us in your school district. And we have amazing quotes from districts, but the one that speaks to what you just said is, "we want to teach the ParentABLE unit of instruction at our district, because we have heard about it from our district, social emotional learning lead, and think it will be helpful for teenagers to have exposure, on how to be good parents. We think that helping students know more about being a parent, parenting styles, and what kids need, will help improve student's outcome and mental health down the road when their kids come to our school." Pike County teacher.

RHODES 17:25  

That's great. As a parent myself, I have two very, very, very different children. I found myself constantly feeling like I was taking a pop quiz. They come up with pop quizzes for you all the time, your children do, like some problem that you've never thought of like, you know, but your answer always sets a precedent. So, it's like high stakes pop quizzes. Can I stand up in the grocery cart? I mean, no. But [the child says] I'm crying. I'm crying. I'm crying, I'm going to throw a fit. Can I stand? It's still no. I mean, I would have loved to have had help with, to prepare for those pop quizzes. I mean, it's at the grocery cart, may be a small example. But is that what your course does? Do you prepare people for those pop quizzes?

BENSINGER 18:25  

Yes, the competencies that we teach and the communication skills we teach, do help prepare them for the pop quiz. And I love that example. You said that parenting is like constant pop quizzes that was fabulous. My mom, who gave birth to five children said she wished that she had had a course before raising her five children because you just don't know. 

But that example is a perfect example. Because those are moments of relationship connection or fraction, fracture, it's little as an example in in a store when a child stands on a shopping cart. So, because the parent could be very angry and yell, and even yank the kid down or say something because they're scared, the kid's going to fall out, or they're just impatient. So, it's a moment where you can you know, say, it looks so fun to be standing there right now. I bet you can see everyone, and it feels like a ride in a carnival. But it's really dangerous and I don't want you to fall out and get hurt. How about we blah blah blah. So, these are moments when the skills we teach help smooth out those pop quiz moments and help the child basically listen and stay safe. 

And we are grateful for the extension of the grant. So, we have two more years with the grant. So that will allow school districts to select a parenting and caregiving education unit that fits their school.

RHODES 19:50  

Okay, great. Is there anything else you wanted to mention that I didn't give you a chance to say?

BENSINGER 19:56  

Well, the only thing would be, we, when we teach the unit of instruction, the students get to write a letter to their future self. And they're so powerful. I just wanted to know if I could read one, they're very brief. They're like three sentences.

RHODES 20:14  

Sure, at what point in the course, do they write the letter at the beginning or the end?

BENSINGER 20:18  

They write the letter at the end of the course, after the competencies, and I'm just going to select. So, here's one: "Dear future me, to be a positive parent-caregiver, remember to be empathetic. It is so important to understand the child's feelings and be understanding. It's also very important to know what to do in hard situations, and make sure you know how to problem solve. If you ever get angry, remember to take a deep breath and calm down instead of yelling. If you yell that will make the situation worse. Remember to be nice and respect the child also." That's just it's one example. There are so many wonderful, wonderful letters to their future self that are really powerful.

RHODES 21:17  

Well, that was a great example. Okay, so thank you very much for taking time to talk to us and for this great course.

BENSINGER 21:27  

Thank you for this opportunity to talk about ParentABLE. 

RHODES 21:31  

You've been listening to Katherine Bensinger creator of ParentABLE. If you'd like to learn more about ParentABLE, visit the website parentteach.org and click the programs tab. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe on Apple or Spotify and share it with your friends. Thanks for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai