Statistics from pew research institute.
Definition:Family unit
in British. (ˈfæmlɪ ˈjuːnɪt) sociology. a social group "traditionally" consisting of parents and children. the traditional family unit of mother, father and two children
While helping my nephew with his homework, i noticed how very little focus has been put into updating the lower primary education system.
What caught my attention is the emphasis on assuming that every child identifies with the basic family structure that is, Father ,Mother and Children.
The questions such us what is the work of the father in a home? What is the function of the mother in a home? and the correct answers , father to provide for the family and a mother cooks and cleans and takes care of the home.
Don't get me wrong that would be the most simplified answer.Traditionally that is what happened. However living in the 21st century .Where fewer children are growing up with both parents and while some children are being raised by parents of the same sex. (Where the majority of Africans find it foreign and unacceptable to belong to the LGBTQ community or even raise a child in that kind of environment)
Family life is changing. Two-parent
households are on the decline as abandonment,divorce, remarriage and
cohabitation are on the rise. And families are smaller now, both due to the
growth of single-parent households. Family roles have changed and so
has the role of mothers in the workplace and in the home. As more moms have
entered the labor force, more have become breadwinners in many cases,primary
breadwinners in their families.
what is often deemed a “traditional” family has been largely supplanted by
the rising shares of children living with single or cohabiting parents.
Children learn from what they see before they can distinguish from what you teach them .This creates a disconnect for children who are being brought up in these families.
The Kenyan curriculum should not work based on assumption or cling to traditional norms of what a family unit is. A child shouldn't have to come home upset or question what a family is because it doesn't suit the norms. It should be inclusive of all children should be taught that their are different types of families and every family has different structures ad that it is fine .Not make them feel like their family is abnormal .
We tend to forget about children and we underestimate how much they can understand and as a result we scar them . Although a percentage of kids are being brought up in what is the traditional family unit, less than 46% half are living with two parents who are both in their first marriage. This share is down from 61% in
1980 and 73% in 1960. An additional 15% of children are living with two parents, at
least one of whom has been married before. This share has remained relatively
stable for decades. In the remainder of two-parent families, the parents are
cohabiting but are not married. Today 7% of children are living with cohabiting
parents; however a far larger share will experience this kind of living
arrangement at some point during their childhood.
Fully one-fourth (26%) of children younger
than age 18 are now living with a single parent, up from just 9% in 1960 and
22% in 2000. The share of children living without either parent stands at 5%;
most of these children are being raised by grandparents
For instance, estimates
suggest that about 39% of children will have had a mother in a cohabiting
relationship by the time they turn 12; and by the time they turn 16, almost
half (46%) will have experience with their mother cohabiting. In some cases,
this will happen because a never-married mother enters into a cohabiting
relationship; in other cases, a mother may enter into a cohabiting relationship
after a marital breakup.
