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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Until we can get a handle on the epidemic of teen pregnancies in Wards 7 & 8, this whole boundary discussion is like rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic.  I don't know what the answer is, but this topic has to be part of the conversation.

Teen pregnancies stay stubbornly high in poor D.C. wards

By Robert McCartney,

It was sad and sobering to hear the teenage mothers and mothers-to-be from the District’s poorest neighborhoods discuss why so many in their communities get pregnant so young.

They said they and their friends don’t expect to go to college or have careers, so there’s less reason to delay having children. They said their part of the city east of the Anacostia River lacks restaurants, theaters and other entertainment, so young people are more likely to turn to sex as an alternative.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/teen-pregnancies-stay-stubbornly-high-in-poor-dc-wards-low-expectations-are-cited/2014/01/29/0e65b1a4-8927-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html 
[/quote]

Oh good grief.  That's almost literally chicken and egg.

The key quote there is the one about expectations for the future.  If a kid believes they have no future and no one around to model what that future should and could be, what's the point of trying?  And if every adult around them, incuding educators, also believes they have no future then they are really SOL.

Bridging that aspirational gap is supposed to be one (of many) benefits of socio-economic diversity, but reading here I'm getting feel that [b]traveling to a wealthier neighborhood in this city would be even more detrimental to a lowere SES kid.  If the values on display here are passed on to children, I think we're all in trouble, frankly.[/b]

I'm also starting to believe that testing is creating more problems than it solves.  Scores and affluence are not the only things that make a school "good", but it seems those are the primary--and maybe [i]only[/i] factors that are being considered.  From what I'm reading, that's all DCPS cares about as well, and THAT'S what needs to get fixed.

[/quote]

Yes, those AWFUL values like taking responsibility for your own life and your own destiny, and to pursue the hard work and commitment that it takes to make that happen.  God forbid low-SES kids should be exposed to such horrors.

Pssssht.[/quote]

But if the prevailing attitude is "[i]Oh GAWD, these OOB kids are bringing our scores down and RUINING our schools! For the love of all things right, keep them OUT!!"[/i]

Those values? Go back and read the posts in this thread they're there in abundance.  They may not be noticed by a pre-k kid, but I know a third grader would pick up on them and maybe by the time she's in 10th grade, she'd rather stay home.

I think if a parent goes through the trouble of driving or sending their kid across town to school, then there's evidence of desire to take responsibility and to "pursue the hard work and commitment that it takes to make that happen."  But that's not really enough, is it?[/quote]

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