Q. Caring for children is probably the most important job in any society. Because of this, all mothers and fathers should be required to take a course that prepares them to be good parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this view?
It is true that parents shoulder a huge responsibility and raising children is by no means an easy task. However, I completely disagree with the idea that taking a class to be a good parent should be mandatory for all parents.
Personally, the idea that all future parents should take a parenthood preparation course is impractical. Many prospective parents have jobs and busy schedules, and so they may not be keen or able to attend the course regularly. By following the class rules and taking the parenting class at education institutes, parents would get more stress out and might lose the point why they should do it. Besides people have different standards to be good parenthood, so it could be always controversial. I believe that it would be of limited value depending on parents and impossible to enforce the idea of compulsory training for them.
As well as being unpractical, I would argue that training courses for parents are unnecessary. Mothers and fathers have been raising children without any official guideline for thousands of years. Parenting skills are learnt from family members, friends and surrounding cultures. Perhaps more importantly, adult learns to be good parents by instinct and by getting to know their own children. For example, a good parent will try to approach to a badly-behaved child on the different strategies and will gradually develop an understanding of what works to correct the behaviour. None of this requires the intervention of a taught course.
In conclusion, while compulsory parenting classes might seem like a good idea, I believe that it would be unworkable and thoroughly pointless.