Last night we began eight weeks of parenting classes. They will be every Monday night from 6-9, which meant Michael basically drove from work, picked me up, and we drove out west to the office where the classes are held. We stopped to grab some snacks, but didn't have time to eat. Dinner after 9 every Monday is going to be a new routine.
There are eleven students in our class, three sets of couples. Opened with introductions and passing around lots of paperwork, most of which we already had and had begun filling out. Glad to know it wasn't due last night, as we weren't done with all of it.
The bulk of the class was introductory -- the models the class would be using, some aspects of Nebraska law, a lot of emphasis on partnering between adoptive parents, bio parents, and the agency. The goal is "partnering for safety and permanence."
They identified the purpose of the class as identifying your strengths and applying them to children's needs. That way the agency can match a child's needs with parents' skills.
The course will be "a navigator" -- a way to get through an unknown course. When fostering or adopting, one should develop a plan. One facilitator said, "You need to have a destination before you can help children."
The second part of the class was about identifying and addressing children's developmental needs, as children coming through this process have usually suffered neglect, abuse, or other developmental deficits.
The facilitators went through an introduction of Eric Erikson's stages of development and an activity utilizing them. I was a little surprised by this, as I understood Erikson's work was now considered out-dated and limited. For instance, Erikson's research only involved boys, and Carol Gilligan, among others, had criticized his theory as not applying to girls. Oddly, the activity we engaged in was analyzing a situation involving a girl. Overall, I thought this part wasn't bad, as the emphasis on identifying and helping developmental needs was good (and I didn't raise my questions about Erikson's theory).
The very thick packets of material we were given to read cover many more issues of developmental needs. I think we ran out of time and didn't get to all the topics we could have in the second part of the class.
Overall, I found it an interesting class, and it left us with things to think about and talk about.
-- Scott
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