Oh, Baby

Sometimes when I am upset with the behavior or performance of my students, I refer to them as my "little bastards." This may seem cold-hearted and insensitive, but I have come to find out that it's actually true.

One day in my Gifted and Talented English 9 class, somehow the term bastard came up. One student proclaimed, "I'm a bastard." There was a brief pause—do I acknowledge such a thing? The pause was only momentary because a number of them announced that they were born before their parents' marriage (if they were married at all); one girl even proudly stated that she was a flower girl in her parents' wedding. It was difficult for me to hide my incredulity when one asked me, "Mrs. Casey, you were born before your parents were married, right?"

Not only are these students bastards, but many of them choose to perpetuate the cycle. I teach 80 seniors, 30 of whom are female. Right now four of them are pregnant. This also does not count the other students who had children before they reached their senior year of high school. (I am also unaware of any abortions that may have occurred.) So to my knowledge over 13% of my female seniors are pregnant.

Clearly, merely teaching abstinence or contraceptive methods is not effective in this population. Because many of them probably do not use any kind of protection, it is our duty as a society to provide contraception for them. Just as students who do not have access to municipal water sources are given fluoride supplements in school, we should provide Depo Provera shots for all female students thirteen years or older. Many taxpayers may balk at the cost, but it will be well worth the investment. Preventing teenage pregnancy will not only reduce the number of tax dollars needed in programs like WIC, but it will also greatly benefit society as a whole: this can help eliminate the generations of birth out of wedlock that so often leads to generational poverty.

It is important we end the cycle of teenage pregnancies. Education is no match for human instinct; therefore, we must temporarily sterilize mother nature in order to help so many teenagers with the difficulty of preventing unwanted pregnancies.