Family Education Promotion Act

The family is the first school of life, and parents are the first teachers of their children. Family education plays an important role in the growth of children. Being a parent is not an easy task. Especially in recent years, with the emergence of many new things, educating children has become more challenging. How to educate your children well? Many parents are also often in a difficult position, even anxious, and on January 1, 2022, the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Family Education" came into effect. This year, from May 9 to 15, is the first national family education publicity week after the implementation of the Law on the Promotion of Family Education. So what has the Family Education Promotion Law brought to us? How has it worked in the past few months since its implementation?

As many parents know, from the day they have children, in addition to the happiness of being a parent, various education-related problems are always with their children at every stage of their growth.

For the parents of Bebe, a three-year-old child, the problem is how to get Bebe to kindergarten every morning.

The parents of Xiao Yu, a second grader in elementary school, are anxious about how to make the best use of the "reduced" time after a year of "double reduction".

In adolescence, children are increasingly rebellious, the parent-child relationship has become very tense, and Ma Yan already does not know how to get along with the children in middle school.

And children also have a lot of lack of understanding and distrust of parents. According to a survey by the All-China Women's Federation, most parents have varying degrees of parenting anxiety. And this distress and anxiety not only affect family relations but also seriously affect the physical and mental health of minors, which is a social problem that needs to be faced head-on.

Guo Linmao, director of the Social Law Office of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said, "The education of minors is no longer a question of cultural knowledge, but of mental health, character, and morality, behavior and ability to survive and live, and some parents emphasize cultural learning over moral cultivation, raising without teaching and teaching improperly."

The problems in family education are drawing more and more attention from all walks of life. at the end of 2021, the first law specifically regulating and guiding family education, the Law on the Promotion of Family Education, was voted on and will be implemented from January 1, 2022.

Luo Shuang, associate professor at the Capital Institute of Education Policy and Law of Capital Normal University, said, "This law is to tell parents exactly what the correct family education is, and a very important purpose is that we want to build a family education guidance service system covering urban and rural areas through the legal system to help and support parents to get out of various confusions and misunderstandings in family education ."

Family education "what to teach" and "how to teach"? This is the first focus of the "Family Education Promotion Law". For "what to teach", "Family Education Promotion Law" clearly stipulates the fundamental task of family education, which is to establish moral education.

Luo Shuang said, "The core of family education is morality first, it is mainly to teach children how to behave, to give children to lay a good character, good personality, is to lay the foundation for the happiness of the child's life."

And for "how to teach" the problem, the law with a full chapter of ten articles, parents should take what ways and means of family education, to make specific and detailed recommendations. For example, to strengthen parent-child companionship, the combination of words and example, respect for differences, equal communication, parents and children grow together, and so on.

Zhou Hongyu, a deputy to the National People's Congress and vice president of the China Education Association, said, "No one is born to be a parent, parents themselves need to be educated and need to improve in their studies. You must be a parent who understands science and reasoning, and not use sticks and scolding to educate children."

Another important element of the promulgated Law on the Promotion of Family Education is to clarify the responsibilities to be fulfilled by the government in promoting family education, stipulating that: the state and society provide guidance, support, and services for family education, people's governments at all levels guide family education work, and relevant departments do a good job in family education within their respective areas of responsibility.

Zhou Hongyu said, "The government's responsibility is to form a working mechanism of home, school, and society to promote collaboratively. This mechanism is the responsibility of the government."

For how the government fulfills its responsibilities, the law also has more detailed provisions, such as the establishment of professional teams for family education guidance services by local people's governments and relevant departments at or above the county level, strengthening the training of professionals, and encouraging social workers and volunteers to participate in family education guidance services.

A city family education guidance service center was established in 2011 as a public welfare institution under the Women's Federation of a city. The purpose of the center is to cultivate a team of professionals engaged in family education through a specialized institution and to guide schools and communities to carry out various practical activities related to family education.

However, the resources of government departments are limited, for example, the Family Education Guidance Service Center of a city has only four full-time staff members, while the family education work in the city is very complicated and there is a great demand for professionals. How to integrate more forces to pry family education work? Local communities have also been exploring.

The director of a city family education guidance service center, a city "wild goose flying" family education volunteer service team leader Wang Xiaojun said: "We set up a city family educators association, in this association has absorbed a lot of social power, one aspect is to train family education professional workers, to lecture One aspect is to train professional family educators, mainly by giving lectures and promoting services by holding parenting classes, and every two years we will conduct assessment and evaluation; the second aspect is mainly through the geese effect, absorbing and cultivating family education volunteers, promoting our parents' self-growth through self-help, assistance, and re-help."

Mingli is a member of this association of family educators. Eight years ago, Mingli encountered confusion in their family education, and to seek help, he participated in the activities organized by the association as a parent to receive guidance and training.

Yang Mingli, a lecturer of a city's "Flying Geese" family education volunteer service team, said, "When my child was about five years old, I felt more and more challenged and powerless, so I took Dabao to participate in a program of a city's family educators' association, called "Daddy's Coming," in which a The concept of positive discipline, called Peaceful but Firm, benefited us greatly."

After this event, Mingli joined the ongoing parent support organization "Flying Geese", started volunteering, and insisted on the systematic study. After a series of training and assessment, Mingli became a professional instructor, providing professional guidance and assistance to more parents.

Through the Family Education Guidance Service Center, a professional organization, combined with the social forces absorbed, Zhongshan City has now cultivated 350 family education instructors at the city and town levels.

Relying on these professional resources and social forces, more than 1,000 parent schools have been set up in local schools and communities in recent years to train parents, and through activities such as public service lectures in the community, parent growth training camps, the "Flying Geese" parent support organization leader cultivation program, and various performances, family education guidance services have been introduced to different urban and rural families flexibly. Family education guidance services have been introduced to different groups of families in urban and rural areas.

These practices, which have achieved good results in local exploration, have also been incorporated into the Family Education Promotion Law and promoted nationwide. For example, the Law on the Promotion of Family Education stipulates that public welfare family education guidance services and practical activities can be organized regularly by establishing parent schools and other means; primary and secondary schools and kindergartens should incorporate family education guidance services into their work plans and as part of teachers' business training.

Parents' confusion often focuses on their children's learning, while professional instructors are trying to guide parents to think about education in a bigger picture and at a deeper level.

This "Family Education Promotion Law" also has important content, the legal responsibility of parents who do not fulfill their due family education duties is also clearly defined, stating that: public security organs, people's procuratorates, people's courts in the process of handling cases, found that minors have serious bad behavior or commit criminal acts, parents or other guardians of minors do not properly implement family education infringement If the parents or other guardians of minors do not properly implement family education to infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of minors, the parents or other guardians will be admonished according to the situation and can be ordered to receive family education guidance.

Prosecutor Liu Juan, who works with minors, often comes into contact with minors who have committed crimes. For her, disciplining minors is not the goal, but more importantly to help these misguided children find the right path in life, which cannot be done without the support of family education, and Liu Juan believes that the Family Education Promotion Law has greatly facilitated this work for them.

Xiao Li, 16, was abetted by his peers and jointly participated in the theft of an electric bicycle. Liu Juan found that Xiao Li's behavior was inextricably linked to family education. In response to the problems of Xiao Li's parents in family education, the Fuzhou Jin'an District Procuratorate issued a Supervisory Guardianship Order to Xiao Li's parents, requiring them to reflect deeply on the problem of lack of guardianship, change their family education and guardianship methods, and accept professional family education guidance services from social workers.

Jiang Lulu, a social worker at Polaris Youth Affairs Social Work Center in Jinan District, Fuzhou City, Fujian, said, "The Supervision and Custody Order was issued, and our social workers went through up to six months of tracking and supervising the child to cooperate with the parents to understand some of the hard work of the family and assist the parents to bring their parental role into play."

If the child is truly given respect and care, the child will also return to the parent's understanding and acceptance. Family is the warmest harbor for a person, and only by allowing family education to play its proper role as a positive guide and establishing a harmonious and warm parent-child relationship can we create a happy base for young people's lives, and they can move forward confidently on the road of life. This is the original purpose and the greatest significance of the implementation of the Family Education Promotion Law.

The Family Education Promotion Act is not meant to punish parents, but rather to empower parents by giving them support, guidance, and assistance. For every parent, the process of educating a child often requires an immense amount of effort and patience. This process is also often a process of self-education and self-growth for parents. Parents often need to reflect on their education style, whether they are doing the right thing, and whether they can be more patient and methodical when educating their children. There is a saying that if parents are good at one point, their children will be good at ten points. We can only raise better children if we make progress and grow with our children and try to become better parents.