Professional Parenting Corps-Oprah Winfrey Has Officially Opened Her $40 Million Boarding School in South Africa

Oprah Winfrey has officially her $40 million boarding school for girls from very poor families in South Africa. The school opened with 152 girls and eventually will have an enrollment of 450. These girls were selected from over 3,500 applicants with a total family income of no more than $787 dollars per month. Educating these girls is a proven approach to accomplish one of the many goals that Oprah has defined for this school: changing the culture of South Africa, a country which is still suffering the effects of years of white minority rule and apartheid.

The girls selected for this school come from families with no running water, no electricity, no money for tuition nor for uniforms and while the families are poor they understand the importance of education being the key to improving their lives. These families wish to instill the values of education and hard work into their children and can clearly see the vast doors of opportunity which will become available to them when they complete school. Without an education these girls would have limits on their future achievement in life. Oprah Winfrey is to be applauded for her work in South Africa alongside the funding of college education for American children some have asked "what about the South African Boys?". This is another debate entirely.

This brings us back to the parents and the parenting skills of those in the US. There are excellent parents who are economicaly poor and dreadful parents who have the wealth and income so many others envy. The socio-economic level only plays a part in bad parenting in some cases, not all. So why, as a country, don't we follow Oprah's idea and incorporate her strategy for the benefit of American children? Good education and good parenting of our children in America should be encouraged at every level in our society commencing with the Government.

The Government could set out a Network of Professional Parents who, in return, would help others with their parenting problems and parenting skills. By creating a Professional Parent Corps, we would have significant short and long-term impact on the lives of tens of thousands of our own children which, in turn, would have a positive impact on our own society. An example of the process I believe could work as follows:

- Government, Schools, Social Welfare and Parent Associations create a Parenting Corps. The key to creating a successful Parenting Corps is to recruit parents into the programme, train and certify them, and provide them with the financial support they will need to dedicate themselves to a long-term commitment to the programme.

-In return, the parents who agree to be a part of the Professional Parenting Corps, would work closely with the schools, healthcare professionals, child protective services to ensure the outcome would of the project would be successful. Professional Parenting Corp members would have to sign a contract with the organization that would detail their rights and obligations.

To bring this a step further and integrate Oprah's idea for our own children the programme could start off as an enhancement of the existing structures available in schools, social welfare, healthcare and child protective services which would being them under the one umbrella. The funding for the Professional Parent Corps pilot scheme would have to come from Federal State or Government grants. Special considerations would also have to be put into place with regard to the Federal and State Tax Laws with a credit created for every child who partakes.

If the pilot scheme is successful and when all the inter-departmental rules have been ironed out the benefit to our own children could be a real eye-opener. Like any other intervention programme for children, it should commence at the earliest possible age, and gradually expand to older children. A secondary programme or off-shoot could take children in their teens and interact and provide a mutual support network which would show great results and impact our society in the short term. It is time that we take care of our most precious resources - our children.