Last week I held in my arms a reason I’m a teacher.
The month-old baby, only 10 mere pounds, squirmed in my arms as I handed him back to his newly graduated mother. A student in my class, this bright, hopeful young girl had her second child three weeks before she walked across the stage and received her high school diploma. She had her first child when she was 14. I’m almost positive I still thought boys had cuties when I was 14. But she wanted “motherhood” – she wanted, according to her, to be to someone else what her mother was never to her.
I didn’t want to cut this girl any slack academically for two reasons. One: she is a very intelligent girl, completely capable of tasks assigned to her. Two: the major problems of education come from double-standards with certain students receiving special treatment. Three: in case you never realized, the drop-out rate in urban districts is off the chart. Students need pushing, nagging, and hand-holding for follow-through, especially when you throw in deciding to start your own family.
I witnessed a young mother sit her tiny baby on the dirty floor of a Walmart bathroom. And at the mall connected to Progressive Field in Cleveland, another mother left her three young girls sitting at a table by themselves for several minutes – completely unattended. And while buying a smoothie, I heard another young mother tell her son to “shut up” and “sit his ass down.” I’m not trying to be judgmental, my heart’s just constantly breaking.
Are there existing pregnancy-prevention programs in most schools? No. Apparently, that would be just like telling the sun not to shine. Should sex-education classes teach abstinence only?
Meanwhile, the news and pop culture have become saturated with stories of teen pregnancies. From the celebrated film Juno (which I admittedly enjoy immensely) to a pregnancy boom at Gloucester High School, in Gloucester, Massachusetts (where 17 girls confessed to making a pact to become pregnant together). And the high-profile pregnancies of 16-year-old actress Jamie Lynn Spears and 17-year-old Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska governor Sarah Palin? A more accepting attitude seems to be replacing an old taboo, and students are not immune to the cultural shift. AND NOW A SHOW ON MTV CALLED 16 and PREGNANT??? If you would like to read some actual statistics, go to Pregnant Teen Help.
Again, I know I must sound outraged and pious but that is so far from my point. I see the brokenness first hand. I see the reasons the young girls in my class want these children in their lives. They lack acceptance, community, and self-worth – all of which they believe will be found in being a mother. How can we (and I, the teacher who feels constantly like a failure when it comes to these situations) embrace those who find embrace in sex and pregnancy?
