Dispatch from an American Classroom: I Wasn't Prepared for Pregnant 12 Year-Olds

From Daily Kos via AlterNet:

I teach 7th grade Social Studies - Ancient World History. The students are all African-American, from Wards 7 & 8, the poorest parts of the District of Columbia. We are just several hundred yards inside the District from its boundary with Prince George's County Maryland. The students are supposed to wear uniform shirts, different by grade, which most of them do. I knew that many came from families that at best struggle, some from single parent households, some living with relatives other than their parents. Still I was not prepared. I did not expect a small 7th grade girl who walked into my room - she is due to give birth on January 23, when she will still be 12 years old.
 

I am told that she will be the 2nd 7th grader to give birth this year.

More here.

Just another reminder from me, a former classroom teacher, that it's not a union problem, not a bad schools problem, not a bad teacher problem: it's a poverty problem. Fix poverty and you fix the schools. Don't fix poverty and you don't fix the schools. It's that simple. Unfortunately, no one actually involved in the public debate on this seems to get it.

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$