Published: August 01, 2008 03:12 pm      

DELUCA: Do we need universal parent test?

It was a coincidence. Really. I was in my car, headed over to get a photo of a teenage safe house for a story that’s running in this issue.

As I was driving, I was deep in thought, pondering a single question that had popped into my head: What I would do if I were president of the United States?

There were some things that come immediately to mind. If I were president, there would be no welfare. For a long time, I have been troubled about welfare. I think it steals a person’s soul and self-respect. I’d create a new program called workfare and no able body would get a dime of government money unless they did something in exchange.

Then I would initiate a volunteer service program for high school kids. Ask them to volunteer a year for their country after they graduate from high school. For every year they gave, they could earn one year of money for college while they assisted impoverished communities or helped to rebuild our parks and infrastructures. Great job training and great training for life.

I would change the high school graduation requirements so that the many kids who are unable to learn in our current system could find a way to graduate, teaching them valuable trade skills like plumbing and welding so they could get could jobs when they graduate instead of expecting all kids to learn the same way and take the same tests. That sets too many kids up for failure.

I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel as I passed through some of the saddest streets in Niagara Falls. What else could I do to make this world a better place? Then I thought about how much I worry about the kids. All the kids.

As I parked my care in front of the safe house, my brain hit on one idea like an arrow to the center of the target. Yes! I would absolutely demand that all parents take a proficiency test before they would be allowed to take their children home from the hospital. Nobody would get a kid in a blanket unless they knew the basics of how to raise that kid. Good God, we all agree that we need to take driver’s tests. How on Earth do we let people take baby humans home without making sure they know what to do?

I shut off the car in front of the Casey House, grabbed my camera from the back seat and went inside. There I met the resident director and we chatted for a while about the house. She told me they get up to 600 kids at the house every year (see the story on page __) and that most are there because their parents gave up on them.

What would you do, I asked her, if you were in charge of the world? Without missing a beat, she replied, “I’d make people take parenting tests.”

She talked about how she had seen that bad parenting creates troubled children who make lousy parents themselves. You cannot break the chain unless you teach the people the basic skills of parenting like how to handle anger, discipline and even love. She said it didn’t matter whether they were rich or poor, many of these kids came from parents who simply didn’t have the skills to raise them well.

Keeping people’s babies. I don’t think we can do that, even though we should. What would we do with all those babies, I asked her, if their parents don’t take the test or won’t take the test? She shrugged. Facing hundreds of teens who are lost or afraid seemed to harden her heart to those who make them that way. Put the babies up for adoption, she said, simply. “There are hundreds of people who want babies who can’t have them.”

After I left her, the idea of a parenting test stayed in my mind for the rest of the day. What would we ask new parents? Are there any hard, fast rules to successful parenting, and could any of us ever agree on what they are? Does it smack of Big Brother, or is it a responsible thing for a nation to do?

As I drove away from the place where hundreds of lost children have found temporary safety before they are returned to the streets, I knew that while I would never be president, I did have a forum to explore the idea. Right here. Right now. There must be a way to save the children. I just don’t know what that way is ... yet.

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Enjoy your August. It is a dreamy month with leisure time best spent sitting in a lawn chair, staring at clouds and dreaming of a better tomorrow. If you have any inspiration while you rest your feet, join me on my blog where I’ll explore these ideas. I’m at niagaraliving.wordpress.com.