In his introductory remarks of Super Parenting our friend Professor William Maxwell mentions that there is a growing body of evidence that one of the primary inventors of the pillars of civilization is children. We could not agree more with this, hence our attempt to write this handbook for new parents.
Our objectives of writing this booklet are very simple. We intend to provide some guidance to new parents so that they can raise their children well enough to meet the challenges of the twenty first century. We all want our children to properly fit into the society as law-abiding, healthy and intelligent citizens. The demands of modern living make our family life difficult and as parents we need to be constantly reminded to act diligently and carefully when it comes to looking after our children well and respectfully.
Saroj, my wife and I have successfully raised four of our own children and assisted our children to manage our eight grand children. We have also taught thousands of young children in various primary and secondary schools and colleges in Fiji, UK, Australia, USA and New Zealand. We can confidently say that we have adequate experience to give reasonable guidance to our family members, relatives and friends. Of course, the general public can also take our guidance if they desire to raise their own children as we did.
We are mindful of the fact that many of our modern parents are well versed with a lot of excellent ideas and appropriate skills to look after and raise their children and might not need our guidance but they can use some of our ideas to enrich their parental obligations and spread this knowledge to others who may need them. However, those parents who think that they could benefit from our experiences, we would be honoured to share this important information with them.
We sincerely hope that the information contained in this Handbook would help many of our new parents to find answers to questions about child rearing. Through this publication we also hope to further improve the good relationship between the parents and teachers because we expect that after reading the information contained here, more parents would be ready and eager to consult the teachers of their children about the overall educational, spiritual, physical and emotional developments of their children.
The ever-increasing demands of our modern living, dictate that there should be more frequent and meaningful interactions among the educational agents such as the parents, teachers and the community. This healthy interaction will definitely enlighten all of us to recognise our duties and responsibilities towards our growing up children. Our frank and fair discussions about the total development of our children will assist us improve our education system and we will all contribute effectively to building a better nation.
The ideas contained in this Handbook are not exhaustive but many of our more successful parents and teachers could add their knowledge and experiences to enrich this presentation. We wish you every success in the total development of your children.
One of our friends and colleagues Gordon Dryden presented us his book titled Unlimited: The New Learning Revolution and the Seven Keys to Unlock it when we attended his information meeting in Gold Coast. This publication is extremely vital for every parent and teacher of this century.
We, as retired educators and parents, liked the seven keys to unlock the newest revolution. The writers reveal the secret by saying that the revolution is personal, interactive, global, instant, mainly free, easily shared and co-operative. This Learning Web Book can be seen by going to their website: www.thelearningweb.net.
In their introductory remarks the writers say that the keys to unlock the future are simple but revolutionary and once they are unlocked, that revolution has the power to unleash the combined talents of millions.
Our handbook is one way to assist the revolutionary parents.
‘If we are determined to use all the available outward means as well as all our natural abilities to overcome and manage every obstacle that come in our path we will then gradually utilize and develop the unlimited potential that lies within us to succeed in any aspect of life. We just have to think positively and generate our will-power. These internal human gifts will make us see all our successes revealed for us.’
Prasad, RL and SK Prasad.