Child Rearing in the Home and School

They raise the world's happiest children - so is it time you went Dutch?

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In the distance, a dog barks and a little boy ambles along on his balance bike, trailed by his grandfather who is pushing a buggy. A gang of older children in tracksuits comes racing along the bike path, laughing and joking. They overtake a young mum who is cycling more slowly, balancing a baby in a seat on the front of her bike and a toddler on the back. A group of girls is playing piggy-in-the-middle on the grass, their joyful shrieks filling the air. Not far away, some boys are perfecting their skateboarding moves.

None of the school-age children is accompanied by adults. I n , a Unicef report rated Dutch children the happiest in the world.

The United Kingdom came 16th and the United States ranked 26th, just above Lithuania, Latvia and Romania — the three poorest countries in the survey. Children from the Netherlands were in the top five in each of the categories assessed: In fact, the Dutch scored highest for behaviours and risks, as well as for education a category in which the UK came 24th. W hen it came to Dutch children rating their own happiness levels, more than 95 per cent considered themselves happy.

The Unicef report was a follow- up to one conducted in , in which the Netherlands were first heralded as a prime example of childhood prosperity. The UK and the US ranked in the two lowest positions. In addition, new research also suggests that Dutch babies are happier than their American counterparts. After examining the temperamental differences between babies born in the US and the Netherlands, Dutch babies were found to be more contented — laughing, smiling and cuddling more — than American babies. Dutch babies were also easier to soothe, while American babies displayed more fear, sadness and frustration.

Psychologists attribute this discrepancy to the different cultural mores of child-rearing in the two countries. A s an American mum and a British mum, both of us married to Dutchmen and raising our kids in Amsterdam , we have found it hard not to notice how happy Dutch children are. The scene we described above should give you an idea why: Dutch children enjoy freedoms denied to children in the countries we come from, and thrive on them see box.

T he Netherlands have a reputation for being a liberal country with a tolerance of sex, drugs and alcohol, yet beneath this lies a closely guarded secret: At the heart of Dutch culture is a society of home-loving people who place the child firmly at the centre. Parents have a healthy attitude towards their kids, seeing them as individuals rather than as extensions of themselves.

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The Dutch have reined in the anxiety, stress and expectations of modern-day parenting, redefining the meaning of success and wellbeing. For them, success starts with happiness — that of their children and themselves. A childhood from black-and-white photographs, old movies and Enid Blyton books. If they do show interest in these subjects earlier, they are provided with the materials to explore them for themselves. Friends who learnt to read later, in the third year, at six or seven, showed no particular disadvantage in having learnt later and soon caught up.

I n the Netherlands, children like going to school, and this is something that is also reflected in the research Unicef collated in Dutch children are among the least likely to feel pressured by schoolwork and scored highly in terms of finding their classmates friendly and helpful.

Communal child-rearing: The role of nurses in school health

The Dutch definitely do not care if little Sophie or Sem is a piano prodigy, a chess champion or an Instagram model famous by the age of two. There are no Baby Einstein DVDs being played, no black-and-white flash cards being used, and definitely no baby enrichment classes or baby gyms, at least not outside the major cities. They seem to just want them to be the easiest. The school health service is governed by the National School Act No.

The Role of Parents

Research plays a very important role as it provides information and evidence which informs the curricula and improvement and changes in provision of healthcare services. She is a team player who is involved at multiple levels. The role involves being able to build relationships with stakeholders.

Relationship between home environment and school adjustment of TMR children.

She has to be able to build trust with children, parents, teachers and many different stakeholders. Networking through involvement in school activities and using electronic social media such as Skype, Facebook and Twitter will assist the nurse to break barriers between herself and the children. Planning is also a required competency skill.

The philosophy of Ubuntu emphasises the need for involvement and mutual respect. The skill adopted from the philosophy can be utilised to engage all stakeholders in planning sessions. There is a need to adhere to the inputs of stakeholders from all levels. Collaborative efforts will also assist in ensuring empowerment and sharing of expertise and skills amongst different stakeholders involved Haynes et al.

Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Monitoring and evaluation are needed within the school health environment and they need to be nurtured and sustained. In monitoring and evaluation the school health team needs to be well trained and fully empowered. The system is logical and consistent to ensure user-friendly school health services. The school health team could use various mechanisms in monitoring and evaluation. The policy further covers the sustainability of school health services in various districts. The school health nurse should be updated with all these skills in order to sustain appropriate and relevant services for the learners.

Strategies for implementation of school health services. There are strategies that could be used in the implementation of school health services. These strategies include, amongst others, MlPs, as discussed in the previous sections. The MlPs, as indicated earlier, have multiple components with interconnected intervention strategies and are targeted at multiple interventions in a system Edwards et al.

It was further indicated that the emphasis was on the need for coordination and interconnectedness between health facilities, family, community, working places, industry and schools, including the socio-ecological model approach in health promotion. Other strategies include research advocacy programmes, behaviour change communication, capacity building, resource mobilisation, networking and participation. Research advocacy is where the researcher will advocate and protect the participants and respondents ethically to ensure their safety in the school environment.

Behaviour change through communication plays an important role, because we expect the school health nurse through their expertise to change the health behaviour of learners through health education. During these interactions capacity building, networking and participation are ensured through cost-effective mobilisation. Limitations of the study. The information from the studies referred to in this article cannot be generalised. It has been found that there are limited studies focusing on communal child-rearing as the role of the school health nurse with emphasis on the African philosophy of Ubuntu.

Therefore empirical studies focusing on Ubuntu, child-rearing and school health nurses may be conducted to enhance the integrated approach to school health.

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It has been noted in this article that the connotation of a 'village' was predominantly African, as this idiom is African in nature. It also indicates how children are reared in a communal community. In conclusion, this article calls for more, strong and sustained collaboration in terms of school health. The partnership should work closely with community stakeholders to promote the health of children and youth as education assets.

The school health nurse can act as a broker to ensure that all sectors are involved in planning, organisation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of the process.

Parenting skills

There is a Venda proverb which says 'munwemuthihi a u tusimathuthu' [one finger will not be able to pick a grain of rice]. In Zulu they say 'Izandlaziyagezana [hands wash each other]. In order for collaboration to take place within the school environment there is a need for solidarity and cohesiveness. The role of the nurse in school health is pivotal and critical in nature. The nurse has to think on her toes, be innovative, creative, and humble yet honourable. A possible direction for further research which is important for future child development is traditional schoolchild-rearing versus Western schoolchild-rearing.

The authors would like to acknowledge the University of South Africa and Department of Health for providing us with the opportunity to submit this article.

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. University of Pretoria and M.

University of Pretoria equally contributed to the research and writing of this article. American Academy of Pediatrics, , The role of the school health nurse in providing school health services, viewed 17 June , from http: Building social capital in safe and cohesive neighbourhood', Journal e-Bangi 2 2 , It takes a village, viewed 02 October , from www. An educational and ecological approach, pp. Leverage points and linkages', Behavioral Medicine 26, The Comer process for reforming education, pp.

Illinois Department of Public Health, , Disaster preparedness exercises addressing the pediatric population, Loyola Medicine, Illinois, viewed 21 January , from www. Ubuntu, cultural diplomacy, and mentoring', International Journal of Human Caring 13 2 , Position Statement, viewed 02 October , from www.

The role of social capital in promoting academic success for African American men at a black college', Journal of College Student Development 49 1 , Evidence from Nepal', Comparative Education Review 49 4 , Theory research and practice, 2nd edn. Guidelines and examples, viewed 17 October , from http: What role for nursing? A Comprehensive Text, pp. All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Services on Demand Article. English pdf Article in xml format Article references How to cite this article Automatic translation. Cited by Google Similars in Google. Problem statement As in other developing countries, school health care programmes in South Africa are faced with multifaceted challenges that entail educational, physical, psychological, spiritual and economic dimensions. Aim of the study The aim of the study is to describe communal child-rearing as the role of the school health nurse, with an emphasis on the African proverb Ubuntu as motivation for development of an integrated approach to school health.

Background Central to the model, programme and philosophy is the notion of teamwork and coordination for development of the school healthcare system in South Africa. Research method and design An integrative literature review was conducted in order to focus on the identified topic. Results and discussion The discussion of results will focus on the Ubuntu philosophy, socio-ecological model, multiple intervention programmes, school health services, monitoring and evaluation, and strategies for implementation of school health services.

The philosophy of Ubuntu The African proverb 'it takes a village to raise a child' emanates from the principle of Ubuntu.

Socio-ecological model The socio-ecological model describes the relationship between health behaviour and social organisation at the interpersonal, organisational, community and policy levels. The environment The physical environment of the school has a bearing on the health of children. At the end of the war, I was living in a naval academy and began living as an adult after the war, and from what I witnessed child care was still care provided by the mother, as in the prewar period.

With postwar recovery, and somewhat assisted by the economic effect of the Korean War, Japan experienced high economic growth until the s and attained affluence. But, with the end of this high-growth period, child rearing practices began to change, presenting major problems for child care. Also related to this were societal changes resulting from democratic policies of the postwar Occupation forces.

In particular, gender equality and the participation of women in society had a strong effect on child rearing. Furthermore, as women's labor power became necessary for maintaining an affluent society, the need for child care facilities grew, which made child-rearing issues even more pressing. Discussions revolved around the quantity and quality of child care facilities. An important question was whether emotional development would be adversely affected if someone other than the mother cared for the child.

Even into the s, the division of labor along gender lines, dictating that men worked while women stayed at home, remained entrenched. This was also true of the maternal myth, the notion that a child must be raised by the mother, and furthermore, that being raised by anyone other than the mother would harm the child's emotional development. I also made appearances on TV and radio programs in which I would stress the centrality of the mother's role. At the same time, however, in Japan, newborn babies were being abandoned in coin lockers, and pediatricians began to see cases of "child abuse," in particular, cases involving neglect, which have been steadily increasing to the present.

In other words, we began seeing women who could not become mothers even though they had given birth to a child and women who had trouble bringing up a child. This, of course, may have something to do with the inadequate support system for these mothers. This issue of what child rearing should be persists. In fact, as the necessary result of an affluent society, it now concerns advanced industrialized nations. The question then arises: Is it all right if children are not cared for by their mothers?

Although placing a child in a child care facility does not affect a child's physical growth, many worry that it might pose a problem for emotional development. In this sense, considering better ways of raising children also entails that we first establish that the use of institutionalized child care does not create such problems.

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