THE PROFESSION OF FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION
The National Council on Family Relations, www.ncfr.org, states:
Family Life Education is:
The educational effort to strengthen and enrich individual and family life through a preventive, family perspective. FLEs bring family research and best practices to individuals, couples, families and parents via an educational approach in order to build strengths and avert problems.
FLE emphasizes processes to enable people to develop into healthy adults and to realize their potential. FLE can help people work together in close relationships and facilitates the ability of people to function effectively in their personal lives and as members of society. FLE recognizes that all families can benefit from education and enrichment programs – not only those experiencing difficulties. While various professionals assist families, it is the family life educator who incorporates a family-systems, preventive, and educational approach to individual and family issues.
FLE includes knowledge about family dynamics and communication; the inter-relationship of the family and society; human growth and development throughout the lifespan; both the physiological and psychological aspects of human sexuality; the impact of money and time management on daily life; the importance and value of education for parenting; the effects of policy and legislation on families; ethical considerations in professional conduct; and a solid understanding and knowledge of teaching and curriculum development for what are often sensitive and personal issues.
Family life educators use many methods and settings to provide training to people who want to be more effective family members. Some examples of how FLEs work to strengthen diverse American families are:
• Co-parenting education and mediation for divorcing couples and direct offenders
• Promotion of family-friendly workplace policies and community awareness of the importance of strong marriages and families
• Developing programs promoting parenting education, and couple and family relationship enrichment
• Fostering the development of research-based, family-strengthening program offerings in schools, agencies, businesses, and faith communities
Families face substantial challenges. Stresses come from many directions and impose great burdens on families. There was time when most young people got family life training in informal apprenticeships with their parents.
Today, with greater challenges than ever before, we provide less training and preparation for family roles than we have in the past. It is no wonder that families feel overwhelmed by the challenges they face.
Many people feel that they know a lot about families because they grew up in one. Yet there are recent discoveries in family process that may surprise many people. Many of the processes that people assume to be helpful in families are not. Research continues to show new and better ways to become vibrant individuals, strengthen couple relationships, and raise healthy, balanced children. Examples of a few of the intriguing discoveries people should know include the following:
• Over the years many family professionals assumed that there was one best kind of relationship. Contrary to expectation, research by John Gottman shows that it doesn’t matter which of three primary kinds of couple relationship one has – volatile, avoidant or validating – all can be satisfying and enduring. But it does matter that we give five positives for each negative. Positivity is the key to closeness.
• Kindness may be more important in family relationships than communication skills.
• Children’s character and moral development may depend more on the cultivation of empathy than anything else.
• One characteristic of resilient children – those who flourish in spite of challenges – is that they have someone in their lives who is crazy about them.
• Teens that focus on serving others are less likely to get in trouble or drop out of school.
• The healthiest people are not the most realistic. Research shows that the healthiest people tend to be unrealistically optimistic.
• Emphasis on self-esteem may have created more problems than it solved.
• New discoveries in positive psychology provide better ways to thrive.
• We instinctively hope to solve problems by studying them, yet those who focus on problems in their relationships may create greater problems. Those who focus on strengths tend to transcend many problems.
• Controlling stress is not done by avoiding it, as much as using the resources we have and managing the way we think about it.
Since 1985, the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) has sponsored the only national program to certify family life educators. Certified Family Life Educators (CFLE) have training and experience in ten vital areas of family life education:
1. Families and Individuals in Societal Contexts
2. Internal Dynamics of Families
3. Human Growth and Lifespan Development across the Lifespan
4. Human Sexuality
5. Interpersonal Relationships
6. Family Resource Management
7. Parent Education and Guidance
8. Family Law and Public Policy
9. Professional Ethics and Practice
10. Family Life Education Methodology
To be a Certified Family Life Educator, one must
• Have at least a bachelor’s degree in education and/or family science field
• Have at least 3200 hours of work experience in family life education
• Pass the national certification exam covering the ten content areas above (Master’s level course work)
• Earn 100 continuing education credit hours in approved programming and in at least two content areas every 5 years
Family life education focuses on healthy family functioning within a family systems perspective and provides a primarily preventive approach.
The skills and knowledge needed for healthy functioning are widely known: strong communication skills, knowledge of typical human development, good decision-making skills, positive self-esteem, and healthy interpersonal relationships. The goal of family life education is to teach and foster this knowledge and these skills to enable individuals and families to function optimally.
Sources: National Council on Family Relations: CFLE Certified Family Life Educator booklet; NCFR Fact Sheet from www.ncfr.org
EVERY FAMILY HAS ITS STRENGTHS AND EVERY FAMILY CAN BENEFIT FROM SOME NEW IDEAS AND SUPPORT.
Many people feel that they know a lot about families because they grew up in one. Yet there are recent discoveries in family process that may surprise many people. Many of the processes that people assume to be helpful in families are not. Research continues to show new and better ways to become vibrant individuals, strengthen couple relationships, and raise healthy, balanced children.