In making decisions about how to educate children, the way we see young adults and what we come to believe about them has a major influence on the curricular and educational choices we make for them. This paper builds on an earlier analysis of how the term ‘teen mother’ is discursively used to mark girls as ‘other’ by examining the effects of the discourse on curriculum decisions and social policy, namely the separation of pregnant and mothering teens into alternative and/or supplemental programs. The use of separation as a curricular tool is widespread for adolescents who are pregnant or who have children (Pillow, 2004). As the private matter of their pregnancy becomes a visible and public matter, schools, policy makers, and educators feel compelled to respond with a change in curriculum or educational option. Quite often, that response entails removing or separating the girls from their home schools and offering them alternative school environments specially geared towards pregnant and mothering teens or support services to support the young girl as she navigates life as both a student and a parent. In offering separate services or a different curriculum, administrators and policy makers reify the idea that the pregnant or mothering teen is now different: the public condition of her pregnancy marks her sexuality as different from the norm and necessitates a removal or separation from traditional schools (Burdell, 1995). Yet, I argue that the routine policy of a separate location and/or curriculum for adolescents with children is arbitrary, one that is not fixed in the educational achievement of the young girl. Rather, the policy of isolation serves as a physical reminder of the ways in which these young women are marginal...
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... and educational isolation to generate and reinforce the concept that these girls need to be separated in order to succeed.
In challenging the seeming naturalness of ‘teen mother’ as a fixed category that requires separate schooling and curricula, I argue that the discourses and policies that support separation are not rooted in the educational benefit of the young woman. Rather, separating these girls from other students works to reassert dominant norms in opposition to the ‘other.’ By examining the discourses that support and are supported by the educational policy of separation for adolescent women with children, we provide a point of rupture from which we can challenge educational decisions that have been taken for granted in the past and call for rethinking our educational and curricular actions with regard to pregnant students and those who have children.
In many schools, women who became pregnant were often relegated to "alternative" educational programs, the participation in which was mandatory. After Title IX, schools could no longer force the student to go to an alternative school, which often was substandard. These students could not be sin...
Louise Gluck and Robert Koertge convey how dividing education can be between mothers and children, teachers and children, and children
The mother is described as a caring, hardworking individual to her offspring. “A baby to one shoulder, a dish towel to the other” (8) this mother displays the true perception of motherhood. Willingly, this mother ensures that her children are well taken care of before her own well –being. Though she experience challenging situations, she outcast
Teen pregnancy is increasing yearly. According to the March of Dimes, teenage birth rates have decreased steadily in the country since 1991. Teenage birth rates in the United States remain relatively high compared to the more developed countries.
Significantly, teenage pregnancy is a social issue that will always be present in Canada. It will always have its health concerns, social issues, and media controversies. Nevertheless, there will always be solutions, where teenagers can be cautioned, and where mothers can have second chances to get the help they need to raise their children. Indeed, teenage pregnancy is not a formula that can be solved with an answer - but it is a cracked path that can only be paved, smoothed, and made better for those that must walk upon it.
America has one of the largest pregnancy rates in teens in the whole world (“Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media”). Pregnant teens have to make many hard choices. They must decided to keep the baby or not., and to continue on with school. or not. Teens moms can lose everything they’ve worked for after one bad decision. Sex is in teens lives because of media influence.
Teen pregnancy is affecting the graduation rate in high schools. “Approximately 1,000 high school students will drop out with each hour that passes in a school day in America” (National Women’s Law Center, 2007). Teen pregnancy first came into view in the 1950’s. In different states teens that were pregnant were not allowed to attend school, most of them had to switch schools out of state in order to attend. Teenage pregnancy was normal in previous centuries and common in developed countries in the twentieth century. As higher education became available to women, they began to start their families later in life. By the 1950’s, parents were encouraging their kids to stay in school and to not marry until they graduate high school so they can focus on school better. Today, any teen pregnancy is frowned upon and they are getting judged. Parents want their kids to enjoy all the benefits of higher education before they begin their families. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “in 2011, a total of 329,797 babies were born in the United States to girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen.” Teenage pregnancy is the number on...
An article by Sarah Desjardins titled “As a Conservative Mom, I still support Sex Ed in Schools,” discusses the issues surrounding the new sex ed curriculum that was introduced in Ontario by the Liberal party. A self-proclaimed conservative, Desjardins decides through critical reflection that she supports and promotes the new sex ed curriculum implemented in Ontario as she believes it is pivitol in the education of youth. I found this article to be incredibly fascinating as it blurs lines between political/religious beliefs and humanist beliefs. I find it enlightening that a conservative mother would publically support the agenda proposed by the Liberal Party in regards to an issue that has always divided the parties and its supporters. Desjardins speaks candidly about her own sexual education she received growing up and its inadequacies.
Teenage girls often get pregnant and do not know the first step in becoming a mother. Normally, when a teenage girl gets pregnant, she is less likely to attend college according to “Women Issues” by Linda Lowen. Some mothers are not even sure who their baby’s father is and many babies get aborted. The majority of single teen mothers are living in poverty. “Almost all our teen mothers are low-income, poorly educated and low-skilled.” (CNN) One third of mothers actually have a college degree and 23.2% are unemployed. (www.singlemotherguide.com) People under the age of eighteen are still developing and are not ready to be
Americans take great pride in their leadership among nations. Such a distinction becomes embarrassing however when the title is claimed for the highest teenage pregnancy rate of any developed nation with nearly one million pregnancies each year. There has been extensive research on the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy which has yielded important information about pregnancy rates and risk factors. Researchers concur that pregnancy is a time of dramatic transition. A first time pregnancy propels the mother from the status of woman to mother. While these changes are noteworthy for the adult woman confronting pregnancy, their effect is frequently magnified when the expecting mother is an adolescent. Adolescent childbearing has become a prominent social issue because of the broad social and economic consequences (Harvy, 1995).
The stereotypes affected them in school, and they feel it was necessity to drop out. Pregnant teens are often the object of critique. The stereotypes are comes from politicians which use teen pregnancy as to shame them. The teenager mothers feel the best option was to go to an alternative school because they did not feel that they were going to graduate if they continue going to their schools. The schools did not attempt to make the teenagers feel a sense of belonging causing them to dropout. The schools need more access to resources that can help their students stay in
In America, the society runs on what teenagers want. From Nicki Minaj to the junior section at Sears, most of what the people see, hear, or touch is aimed at the teenagers. Being an adolescent is probably the most exciting and most popular time period in a person’s life. The teens seem to have it all, but what about the parents who raise them? The parents of the teenagers never get any credit during this time period, although they have every right to. Parents and teenagers should strive for a strong, lasting relationship for these years, though most times there isn’t one. The relationship between teenagers and parents is the most vital bond in the family because this relationship should and will prepare them for the next step in life.
Another example of negative societal influence is shown through institutional discrimination when school administrators push a very bright student out of school due to her pregnancy, so that she can attend a “parenting school” to learn about baby care. This discrimination is performed with the justification of being best for all students with the assertion that “pregnancy is contagious,” but this effectively creates an environment that lowers their chances of graduating from high school (Smith, 1995).
The concept of comprehensive social intervention has been defined as the process of identifying social problems in an attempt to eradicate them. In looking at the broad range of social characteristics and the behavior associated with teen pregnancy, it is obvious that the emphases placed on the effort to recognize and alleviate teen pregnancy can be celebrated through the effectiveness of education, family planning, and abstinence. However, the attempt to analyze and deal with the cause-and-effect relationship with teen pregnancy is an attempt in understanding the social world itself. In 2006, statistics show that there was a significant increase in teen pregnancy after a decade long decrease. The potential for understanding this increase motivates us to look beyond simple explanations for cause-and-effect behavior and to look at what interactions may be occurring between variables that result in specific behaviors or social conditions. What is it that influences behavior? In looking at teen pregnancy in the realm of the family, it is evident that a large number of family structures have evolved, or perhaps devolved, into a variety of combinations which challenge responsible parents to consistently expose their children to the role models and the types of behaviors that are important for their children to emulate as they mature. People are molded by circumstances and experiences, all of which can positively or negatively influence our behavior.
My research topic is about, how does a teen or adolescent pregnancy affects the life of the mother? In our world today teen pregnancy is becoming more normal than it used to be. Teen pregnancy is looked down upon in our society and when teen mothers go out in public or even just to school, whether pregnant or with a baby they get stared at and talked about. A good deal of people think that if you have a baby as a teenager your life is over and that you cannot and will accomplish your aspirations like going to college and getting your degree and having a good paying job. I have known someone who was a teen mom and she did graduate from high school and did go to college and has accomplished most of what she has wanted to do, but