Ramblings about Teen Pregnancy, STEM and Poverty

In a recent conversation with a few friends (both male and female) we noticed that some people don’t completely understand the fact that daughters of teenage mothers have an increased risk of having children as teens themselves. Nor do those people grasp the potential effect of perpetual teenage motherhood on the teen mother’s community or on the United States as a whole. I guess the opportunity to witness perpetuating inter-generational cycles of poverty and poor education up close doesn’t present itself to everyone. But, for those who have seen this cycle in action - and understand it’s ramifications - it’s hurtful to observe.

The fact that daughters of teenage mothers have an increased risk of having children as teens themselves hinders the United States’ ability to contribute additional productive and successful professionals to the global community. This is especially true in a time when the president is calling for more women to enter STEM education/professions in the United States yet; the United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the industrialized world.

If only 38% of mothers who have a child before the age of 18 obtain a high school diploma, and only 2% complete college by the age of 30[1], one could argue that there are way too many potential STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals, business leaders, and innovators being left behind because they are too busy struggling to put food on the table to complete their own education and reach their professional potential.

More specifically, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, teenage mothers typically receive less than $800 a year from absent teen fathers. Teen mothers are also less likely to finish school, more likely to be incarcerated and more likely to earn minimum wage. Which means the majority of teenage mothers are not founding lucrative startups, or becoming CEO’s of STEM-related Fortune 500 companies. They are instead often taking menial jobs and following some of the same behaviors their parent/parents did.

President Obama’s Friday Facts: Women and Girls in Stem fact sheet[2] states “increasing the number of smart, talented women who pursue STEM-related careers is key to creating jobs and keeping America on the edge of innovation.”

But, how do we get the three-quarters of a million teens between 15 and 19 that become pregnant each year to reach the status of “smart and talented”?

How many teenage mothers are there?

According to the Center for Disease control, one-third of girls get pregnant before the age of 20. As stated on a site managed by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, www.teenpregnancy.org, there are "750,000 teen pregnancies annually. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens."[3]

Are there any successful Children of Teenaged Mothers[4]?

Not all children of teen mothers are doomed to live out their life in lower socio-economic status. Child entertainers like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are two examples of successful offspring of teen mothers.

Unfortunately, however, statistics show us that Bieber and Gomez are exceptions. The average income of a U.S. teenage mom is $23,000 and short of having their children discovered on You Tube or receiving a larger salary for being cast in MTV’s Teen Mom, $23,000 is pretty accurate and up to date. According to the National Women’s Law Center[5] recent poverty statistics yield sobering poverty rates and extreme poverty rates amongst women in 2010.

More specifically female poverty in the U.S. is the highest it has been in 17 years at 14.5 percent last year, up from 13.9 percent in 2009. While the “extreme poverty rate” climbed to 6.3 percent in 2010 from 5.9 percent in 2009 among women (which was the highest ever recorded).

What do folks on twitter think about pregnancy and poverty?

At 9:06 am on October 28^, 2011 @TheMamaFesto (aka Avital Nathman) tweeted “More from @MotherWoman centerpieces "Becoming a mother is the single leading indicator of poverty for women in the US. WHY?" #MWBrkfst”.

Now after you cut through all the twitter-ese and the hashtags you find a very interesting question, if you believe becoming a mother is the single leading indicator of poverty for women in the US, why is that true?

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[1] http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/why-it-matters/pdf/education.pdf

[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/67094594/Girls-Women-and-STEM-Education

[3] http://www.livestrong.com/article/12504-teen-pregnancy-rates-usa/#ixzz1bw5Ef2dG

[4] http://parentables.howstuffworks.com/family-matters/reality-being-teen-mom.html

[5] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/14/u-s-women-hit-hardest-by-poverty-says-census-report.html

HE:ED Interview (Joe Champion) : STEM education and black youth

HE:ED is trying something a little different...letting you have the spotlight. This is the first of a series of interviews which will feature various takes on youth, education and health-care in America. This post is an interview with Joe Champion, author of the blog The Power of Pao. Joe is a technology professional, blogger and speaker that we thought would be an excellent "firestarter" for this interview series. Below are our questions and Joe's responses.

What role does STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) play in the education of black youth today?

I'm not an educator so I can't accurately judge the role of STEM in the education of black youth today. It is my opinion that given the globalization of the world’s economies, driven by corporations' constant desire for lower costs and higher profits, STEM education is a necessity for personal, group and national competitiveness, If our youth can't compete academically, particularly in the STEM fields, with the youth from other nations, we all face a future of lower standards of living, higher incarceration rates, and less and less control over our personal and national destiny.

What role did STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) play in your education?

My education in technology played the primary role in determining my career direction and in enabling me to progress from childhood poverty to a comfortable economic status.

What led you to your career in information technology?

Actually, it wasn't something I consciously chose. After a couple of years of college, I still wasn't sure what direction I wanted to focus on. I dropped out and was working some entry-level jobs, not making much money, and was forced to live with my parents because I couldn't afford my own place. My childhood best friend had joined the Air Force after high school and he was telling me what a great time he was having, traveling the world and meeting all kinds of great, interesting people. That

sounded a whole lot better than working for minimum wage and living with your parents, so I went to the recruiting office and signed up. I took the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test and it identified my primary strengths in the Verbal field, and next in Mechanical, which I found surprising since I never was a hands-on kind of person, The recruiter advised me to go into the electronics field in the Air Force, even though my higher verbal scores pointed towards the administrative field, because he said it would be easier to get a job in technology once I got out. I took his advice and the rest is history.

Why do you think (racial) education disparities exist in America? (Ex. the difference in math and reading scores of white male youth vs. black male youth)

I think the answer to that is pretty simple: Economics. Children who grow up with more money have more opportunities. They eat better, they have better schools, they have more extracurricular choices, and they feel safer, more self-confident, more optimistic, and more loved. It is not all about money, but it is the major factor that determines opportunities.

Despite the fact that minority, and particularly black youth, are disproportionately at economic disadvantage compared to white youths, this shouldn't excuse them and their parents from competing. Countless cases throughout history show people who grew up poor, in bad areas with bad schools, with little or no parental guidance, and who became successful financially and productive members of society, demonstrating that environment can be overcome. Is it easier to make it when you have all the advantages that money brings in our world? Absolutely. But the evidence is there that it's not money that determines success. It's the adults in a community deciding that the care and nurturing of the youth is the most important factor in ensuring the viability and survival of that community.

What input do you have regarding the argument that blacks are "where they are" because they are lazy?

It's always been a strategy of victimizers and exploiters to diminish, demean, dehumanize and blame the victims of their exploitation. Whether it is been religious establishments justifying imperialism by labeling targets of imperialism as 'Infidels' or 'Savages ', regimes such as the Nazis or Rwandan Hutus portraying Jews or Tutsis as nonhuman devils to justify genocide ,or the modern Republican / Tea Party blaming the economic collapse on "sub-prime" borrowers (i.e., the blacks and illegal aliens), blaming the least powerful to excuse discrimination, exploitation and violence is as old as humankind. If blacks are portrayed as mostly "lazy and shiftless'; it justifies discrimination in the mind of an employer or bank against a qualified black job or loan applicant. 'Hey, you know if you hired one they would always be late, or if you gave them a loan they wouldn't pay it back, right?'.

Blacks are no lazier than any other group of people, and most people know this. We are still coping with the effects of hundreds of years of slavery, terrorism, apartheid, discrimination and media assaults on our collective psyches and economic resources. Just because we have not progressed as a group as far and fast as we would have liked, or others tell us we should have, we should never accept others or ourselves characterizing us as 'lazy' and therefore less deserving of the good things in life.

What do you think we should do?

I read an article last year in a magazine called YES!, called 'Why is Costa Rica Smiling?', which describes a study by the New Economics Foundation, called the Happy Planet Index, which ranks countries ''based on their environmental impact and the health and happiness of their citizens ". Costa Rica ranked No. 1. The United States was No. 114. Costa Ricans live longer than Americans and "there is little difference in life expectancy across income levels, unlike in the United States". The article points out that the reasons that Costa Ricans are much happier and content than Americans is because they receive free or very inexpensive ($200 a year for college tuition!) education and health care, they spend a lot of time with family, friends and community, and, since Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948, it has more to spend on health and education.

What does this mean for the challenges facing blacks in the United States regarding education and achievement? It points out the importance of priorities. To paraphrase Malcolm X," We've been bamboozled, we've been hoodwinked, we've been led astray". When we embraced the so-called American dream that was pushed to us by corporations through the media, the dream that told us that things are more valuable than people, that the individual is more important than the group, that he who dies with the most toys wins, that we deserve more than others because we are America and God blesses America more 'cause we’re God's favorite, we did not realize that chasing that dream was just a trap to impoverish the majority of us and imprison, physically and psychically, the rest of us (See the current economic depression as proof that short-term thinking and shallowness always leads to ruin).

What should we do? To quote brother Malcolm again," Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today". Look at our priorities. A college education should be a right. All education should be a right. Health care should be a right. Having enough to eat should be a right. This is all easily attainable. Guns or Butter? Profits or People. Fear or Courage. We just have to look at our priorities.

HE:ED Highlight : So why aren’t there more Acoustical Engineers?

There are various programs and organizations that exist to drive awareness around (and address) America’s lack of educational achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). But when asked, the student themselves don’t always know what STEM-related educational options and career possibilities there are. And when students are aware of them, STEM derivative careers don’t seem interesting to them.

Let’s take Acoustical Engineering for example, the word acoustical tells us that acoustical engineering has some to do with sound. In fact acoustics are the science of sound and vibration and acoustical engineering is the application of acoustics in technology. Since acoustical engineers are usually tasked with the control and/or manipulation of sound it stands to reason that they would need to understand and design sound absorbers, buffers, silencers and barriers in indoor and outdoor environments. These include working with medical personnel as it relates to ultrasound technology and/or architects on concert halls.

Since STEM has been mentioned it seems a given that one would have to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics to become an acoustical engineer. Start to finish that probably means attending middle and high schools that focus on achievement in science and mathematics, completing an engineering (and possibly physics) curriculum in undergrad and topping it all of with a masters or PhD in acoustics.

This is part where many parents (and students) would say, “Easier said than done.” One barrier to the education needed to create more acoustical engineers is public education in the U.S. The programs and organizations that exist to drive awareness around (and address) America’s lack of educational achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics have worked to bolster STEM programs in the current education system, recruit teachers, support students, encourage federal involvement and support local community partnerships. But the STEM stats are still lackluster. (This years STEM stats by state can be found at http://www.usinnovation.org/state-sheets.)

Many education reform advocates also agree that generating interest in STEM has to start at home. Moreover, parents need to be aware of options to get their children into schools with curricula focused on science, and mathematics and stress the importance of genuine academic achievement.

HE:ED Highlight: STEM

HE:ED Highlights – STEM

Even though former vice president Al Gore has just recently focused on American youth’s lack of interest in STEM, it’s been an issue for a while. In fact organizations like ASTRA and STEM Education Coalition (www.stemedcoalition.org) have been posting STEM data for years. (By the way, this years STEM stats by state can be found at http://www.usinnovation.org/state-sheets.)

So, American kids aren’t opting (or prepared) to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics…Al Gore didn’t propose a solution during his global, online town hall meeting.

So…what do these groups propose we do?

Lets look at the STEM Education Coalition’s Core Objectives: (found at http://nstacommunities.org/stemedcoalition/objectives/)

1. Strengthen effective STEM education programs at all levels – K-12, undergraduate, graduate, continuing ed, vocational, informal – at the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and other federal agencies with STEM related programs.

2. Encourage national elected officials and key opinion leaders to recognize and bring attention to the critical role that STEM education plays in U.S. competitiveness and our future economic prosperity.

3. Support new and innovative initiatives that will help improve the content knowledge skills and professional development of the K-12 STEM teacher workforce and informal educators and improve the resources available in STEM classrooms and other learning environments.

4. Support new and innovative initiatives to recruit and retain highly-skilled STEM teachers.

5. Support new and innovative initiatives to encourage more of our best and brightest students, especially those from underrepresented or disadvantaged groups, to study in STEM fields.

6. Support increased federal investment in educational research to determine effective STEM teaching and learning methods.

7. Encourage better coordination of efforts among federal agencies that provide STEM education programs.

8. Support new and innovative initiatives that encourage partnerships between state and local educators, colleges, universities, museums, science centers and the business, science, and technology communities that will improve STEM education.

...and those seem great but, where is the evidence that these “new and innovative initiatives” exist in the urban (and rural) school districts where many argue they are needed? And if they exist how are the parents - that  manage the earliest parts of education - being made aware?