Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— The Mission of the Dirt Road is offering a class in January and February to help adults parent their teenagers.
The sessions entitled “Active Parenting of Teens” will cover methods of respectful discipline, skills for clear communication, strategies to prevent risky behavior and how to be an encouraging parent.
“We did a similar class for parents of elementary-aged children in the fall,” Mission Pastor Carey Moreford said, “and we knew there was interest in the teen class.”
Moreford added that the sessions, which are held on Tuesdays through Feb. 25 are taught by the Hanley Foundation, and consist of video, group discussion and a book.
The curriculum is by Dr. Michael Popkin, who has been teaching active parenting since 1974 when he was a master’s student at Georgia State.
Popkin said he decided to devote his career to training parents after sitting in on a parenting class taught by one of his professors at an Atlanta church.
“I was amazed that parents would hear a new concept or skill, go home and try it with their kids, and then come back and share these wonderful stories of how things were changing week by week,” he recalled. “I knew pretty early by the time I was 25 or 26 I’d be doing the rest of my career in parenting education.”
The classes are free and come with a complementary meal and childcare.
Moreford said that after a holiday break, classes are gearing up again at the mission’s location on SR 100. A career development series is also being offered on Tuesdays through Feb. 1.
