I usually use these
pages to give advice to great parents who want to be better.
This time I'm doing something different-I going to tell
a story about parents who needed advice and didn't know
enough to look for it. These parents were teen parents,
and not just any teen parents. These were teen parents who
had been identified by an inner-city school system as the
teen parents who were at the highest risk.
The story began in Minneapolis, when the Minneapolis Public
Schools approached us to help run a pilot program for high-risk
teen parents using our MediaWise
program.
The MediaWise program is a
set of educational workshops and activities. We designed
it to help parents and teachers identify media habits and
give them the tools to teach families how to have healthy
media diets.
The program has had overwhelming success nationwide in
schools, neighborhoods, companies, and communities of faith.
But we had never tried our program on the parents that many
other programs fail.
You've probably guessed by now that the pilot program was
a success too, but you may be surprised by the impressive
degree of success. Fifty-five percent of the parents reported
that after participating they and their children watched
less TV and spent more time doing things together, especially
reading. Before the program, most of the teens didn't pay
attention to TV ratings. By the end of the program, most
of them did. Seventy-two percent reported they were more
careful about the kind of programs their kids watch since
participating. Most astounding, the amount of time these
parents spent reading to their children increased by over
400%. I'm not overstating the case when I say the program
helped these teens become better parents.
These results were so exciting that the Institute began
to develop special materials designed for teen parents.
And in addition to the pilot program, the Institute helped
create a special library for teen parents with hundreds
of children's books hand-picked by an independent bookseller
who specializes in matchmaking books with specific children.
There's a piece missing from this story. How was this possible?
Did an inner-city school system and a non-profit Institute
have the resources to produce these amazing results on their
own? Of course not. The most amazing part of this story
is the way different parts of the community came together
to positively contribute to children's lives. Three local
foundations provided the money, Oleanna Books donated its
time, and the schools found teen parents in need.
This story began in Minneapolis, but it doesn't have to
end there. People in communities everywhere are ready to
help change kids' lives for the better. All it takes is
a reason to come together.
Our
media culture is changing how kids learn.
Together we make sure it's for the better. Donate
Now!
