Parents as Leaders of newborn and young children is a given. Parents hold life and death powers over their children and must know that they have little choice but to care for their totally needy family as long as they are unable to care for themselves. This truth begins at conception
So parents are teachers, care givers and role models all wrapped in one (or two). And as mentioned above, certain of the learning takes place before the baby is born so conception initiates teaching and learning; avoidance is impossible.
There is no guarantee that the lessons being taught are appropriate or desirable and this holds true for the most vulnerable periods of a human’s life and that has to be pre-birth, birth and the first three to five years. This is so for obvious reasons and they all come out to be the state of helplessness.
In past papers I’ve often used the word picture “around the kitchen table.” I do so because the influence parents have being teachers and role models are uncontested. The arrow points only from parents to child. Extended family may add to the influences that play on a child’s growth and development. This is why I place max importance on a teacher’s influence on a child’s view of themselves and the people around them. The young are sponges and absorb amazing amounts of information in short periods. Here, I do not mean how to read and write, but social and how they relate to each other. How dynamic is this? MOST!In the new and strange group and environmental setting the young are vulnerable to other children and teachers; so much is different. There is much to absorb and little time to do so; also being vulnerable diminishes as we age. We learn to protect ourselves or relish new experiences, here courage is essential. Our 1stteachers have an immense opening to influence attitude and behavior; young behavior is not yet frozen, but continues to result from experiences and degrees of being vulnerable.Under the influence of parents the young do not choose role models. When with others and a teacher they begin to do the selecting of their new role models. New role models may or may not be leaders, but the young select them because they like what they experience and the person. Society cannot afford to blow the opportunity. Sy