Professional Parents?

Full disclosure, I’m a science fiction aficionado. I have found so many truisms and connections to my everyday life by reading about abstract, far-fetched ideas. Extracting the human element by contrasting the environments in which the characters act. The novel ‘Cyteen’ by C. J. Cherryh imagines a world where some people are genetically engineered and then raised by professional caregivers. One scene in particular details a young boy being taught a technical procedure with near infinite patience, gentle guidance, and positive reinforcement. Qualities all parents and teachers strive for. It struck me, personally, how often I fall short in my own parenting. Certainly there are parenting classes and coaches that I can pursue, but at a more fundamental level I was aghast that I hadn’t and that it would be a chore to do so. Yet, I readily partake in continuing medical education, to enrich my professional life. I can be a slow learner, and it might already seen obvious to some, but my priorities need some tuning. Though, I would argue so does our larger cultural context. How might the bulk parenting improve if we drastically increased amount of practical early childhood development as part of regular educational curriculum? What might parenting look like if (when they had been) high schoolers were kindergarten teachers’ assistants, as part of high school curriculum?