A year ago , I started talking to a fellow co-worker of mine in the FHAC's department (Family, Home, and Consumer Sciences) about teen pregnancy in our school. At the time there seemed to be an overabundance of pregnant students at Hempstead this year. We had and interesting talk about, "how it didn't seem so taboo to be pregnant in High School anymore. She was explaining to me how some girls were looking forward to having a child. She explained to me that some of them felt that it was, "no big deal." We soon began talking about the sex education lessons taught in the school and how they are more directed toward the women and not the men. We discussed about what lessons are being taught to the males about teen pregnancy? How could they prevent teen pregnancy? We were curious about the male students and what their feelings were on being a parent at such a young age. So many questions we had for these students. So many fears we have for their future and the future of their babies. So I proposed to that teacher that sometime we should do a corroborative art project together based on this subject. Her "Parenting Class" and my "Advance 3-D Class". I told her about the projection projects by Wodiczko that I found so interesting. I even showed her the episode of Art 21 in which he was featured. She thought it would be neat to have the classes do something creative like this.
Through this project I not only hope we have our questions as the teachers answered, but also the questions created by the students, and the participants.
Teacher Questions:
- Why do some students want to get pregnant at such a young age?
- Do the students understand the costs of having a child?
- How does a young teenager, still in school plan to provide for a child at such a young age?
- Are they happy with their decision?
- What are the teen father’s feelings on being a parent at such a young age?
- How many of these pregnancies are planned/ unplanned?
- How many of these are the result of rape?
- How many are the result of drugs or alcohol?
- How many of these pregnancies are the result of unprotected/ protected sex?
- How are we teachers supposed to react to a student who tells us she is pregnant?
- How many of these pregnancies are the results of a female being pressured in having sex, directly or indirectly?
- What will happen to that child down the road? What are the statistics?
- How can the males take a bigger role in preventing teen pregnancy?
- How many of these student couples get married? How many end in divorce or separation?
- How many result in abusive behaviors?
- How many end in abortion... adoption... or keep their baby(s).
- How many of these families end up below the poverty line?
- Are we as teachers being to judgmental?
- Are there better methods for us teachers today to help prevent teenage pregnancy?
.... and many more?
Then we need to see what other questions are raised by the parents, students, and other faculty members.
I feel the students need to have more then just statistical data to look at. They need the truth not by numbers, but by the stories of those who have been there. I think they need to hear first hand the stories of those students who have gone through a teen pregnancy. I thought it would be best to present this in a format that was creative but effective. Through the use of interactions, role play, performance, video, and sound.