Thank you for your excellent thoughts and encouraging wishes, Cathy. How very rewarding it must be to see parents grow and develop along with their children. We agree that helping parents improve their parenting skills and child development knowledge ultimately results in stronger families and a whole host of benefits for their children and that, in turn, results in a better world for all. We are lucky to have folks like you and Diana so engaged. Thanks again.

Yes, Diana. We hear from teachers at early learning centers about how great it would be if parents could be teaching their children the same things at home that they're learning at our center. Part of the challenge seems to be that by the time the kids arrive parents are so very busy that attracting them even to free seminars (like the excellent sessions that United Way often holds) is a challenge. That's why we hope to educate parents prospectively, while they're still in school. Thank you for your excellent thoughts and understanding of this issue.

Thank you Sean for your interesting and insightful thoughts. We agree it is both important and a logical step and are quite surprised more is not being done in this area. Currently 32 states have standards related to teaching parenting and child development. Most of these, however, focus on limited or loosely related topics rather than providing a comprehensive course to prepare students for their potential future parenting roles. Notwithstanding the mixed nature of state high school parenting standards, based on our initial research, we have reason to believe that few states actually have effective plans or activities in place to reach the standards. Our objective is to both help strengthen the standards and improve their implementation as well as support parents in their important work -- all ultimately to improve chidren's kindergarten readiness and subsequent success. Thank you again for your interest in our Idea.