PARENTING WITH DIGNITY

About PWD

We have experienced a number of changes since our inception in 1996. Yet, the mission and the unshaken commitment to the children of America have not changed. My wife Barbara and I have spent much of our adult life sharing our vision of parenthood with countless groups of people across the United States. 

Parenting With Dignity®, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, was established in 1996 as a parent education organization that disseminates information on all aspects of raising children capable of making responsible decisions. Our mission is to improve the lives of children by promoting and teaching effective parenting skills.

Mac Bledsoe, President and Founder

Teacher - Coach - Husband - Parent - Grandfather - Educator

Born 1946 in Carmel, California, the second of four children of Stu and Betsy Bledsoe, Mac has an older brother Michael, and two sisters Janet and Dede. Stu was a pilot during World War II and after returning from duty he moved his family to Ellensburg, Washington , where he began a cattle ranching career, and later serving in the Washington state legislature and and the Director of Agriculture.

Mac attended the University of Washington on a football scholarship and was captain of the Husky Football team while earning a degree in Speech and Psychology. In their junior year of college Mac married Barbara, his sweetheart since the eighth grade. That was the beginning of a 37-year marriage and a partnership as best friends and schoolteachers.

After college Mac served his country as a First Lieutenant and commander of the Enlisted Personnel Division at the Army Transportation School at Ft. Eustis, VA. Upon completion of active duty Mac and Barbara returned to their hometown of Ellensburg, Washington. Mac and Barbara raised two wonderful sons, Drew and Adam. Both have distinguished themselves as leaders and happy, self-directed young men. Both are married and Drew and his wife have four children.

Throughout a distinguished 29-year teaching career Mac and Barbara taught in five different Public Schools Districts. Mac also coached football as well as track, basketball, baseball, and debate. Along the way, Mac was presented Crystal Apples for excellence in teaching in both the Walla Walla and Yakima school districts. He was a recipient of two golden acorns from PTAs in two of the communities where he was one of the few teachers actively involved in local PTAs.

Over time, the Bledsoes found themselves disillusioned by the culture in their classrooms, and the increasing numbers of students who seemed to be morally and ethically rudderless. They were saddened to watch students making terrible decisions with life-altering or life-ruining consequences. Born out of this frustration they questioned what would happen if they were to try teaching parents some of the simple techniques they used in their classrooms. Could they teach parents how to teach their values, morals, and ethics to their own children? They believed that if parents knew how to instruct their children in effective decision-making and how to set guidelines for making decisions, it could make a difference in their classrooms.
Permission was obtained from school principals and Mac and Barbara held the first of what was to become a parent education curriculum that is now entitled Parenting with Dignity. Only a small group of parents attended that first class, but within weeks they began to notice a profound effect in their classrooms. Students were attending class more regularly, and someone at home had actually convinced them of the importance of doing homework. Noticeable changes in personal grooming, and perceptible changes in the vocabulary of their students convinced Mac and Barbara that they were onto something.

Parenting with Dignity evolved into a nine-week course over the years as the program became more comprehensive and fine-tuned to today’s problems. Mac and Barbara were teaching PWD at community colleges, hospitals and in PTAs of Northwestern States when their oldest son Drew approached them with an idea. Drew, a quarterback in the NFL at this time, explained that he wanted to build a foundation to support and promote their Parenting with Dignity program. After considerable deliberation, Mac accepted the challenge and founded the Drew Bledsoe Foundation as a support mechanism to bring Parenting with Dignity to the entire nation. The rest is history. Parenting with Dignity is now one of America’s most effective and highly acclaimed parent education curriculums.
 

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