by Donna Swagerty Shreve
In all of my 37 years of teaching I had never had another student like her. She had one powerful goal: she wanted to get pregnant. She was 14 years old and in my family life class. I only had her one semester but she made an impact.
My family life class included many life skills such as finances, drugs, propaganda as in advertising, peer pressure and, of course, sex, which included contraception. I agreed to teach the class because it had not been taught for a few years and I thought it was a necessity for some of the students. No student was allowed to take the class without parent permission. I was very open about the agenda and what material I would use and the proper terms I would use.
One of the tools I had was computerized babies that were very life-like. There were about ten of them in working order and they came in different shades of skin tone so every student could find a baby that would most resemble themselves. The babies were programmed to cry every three hours or so. To make it stop crying, one of three things must happen in a timely manner. Their diaper might need a change. There were two different types of diapers so the baby would know if the diaper was changed out or not. A second choice was feeding the baby with a computerized bottle that would register on the baby’s lips. The third choice was to cuddle and rock the baby which the sensors could also detect. Each “parent” had to wear a computerized wrist band that could only be cut off when the baby was returned. Each baby was quite expensive and I made a big deal out of their computer baby score. The top three scores received prizes. I also had an arrangement where any student could return their baby early with no questions asked just as one can do at a hospital or fire station in the real world.
Students had to wait for their turn or choose not to participate. I had a very straight forward grading system. If you participated in the baby care for three days and two nights, you received an A. If you chose not to participate but came to class, you received a B. One student was from the special education class and he told me he promised not to get any one pregnant but he did not want the hassle of a computer baby. I enjoyed his sense of humor and told him he was certainly excused.
Then I had another issue. This one girl was desperate to get her hands on a computer baby. I had been warned by other teachers that she had a very poor attendance record and averaged about two days of attendance a week. There was a good chance I would never see her again if I gave her a baby. Her parents refused all efforts to come in for any conferencing and did not respond to notes home. She was persistent with me about when it was her turn. I told her there were attendance concerns and she would have to come every day for a period of three weeks before I would allow her to take home a baby.
I thought I was being safe but reasonable. She came to school for 15 schools days in a row. I now had to follow through on my end of the bargain. It was reported through school gossip that she belonged to a family of gypsies. This was a first to me but there had been a few families of gypsies in our area. I was not familiar with their culture but knew I was dealing with something very different from the norm. I checked out the baby and attached her wrist band. Three days went by, and then five. She was not coming to school. She had a younger sister in third grade who also had an attendance problem.
I went to see the vice principal at our school and told him of my concern for not getting the expensive baby back, and provided what background I was able to give. He agreed to drive over to her address with me during my prep period the next day. We drove to an apartment building complex and took the stairs to the second floor. After knocking at the door and waiting a long time, the door was finally opened. There stood the third grade sister. I asked to see her sister and for her to bring the baby. The little girl knew exactly what I was talking about and went to get her older sister. No parents were at home and the apartment was quite dark as the shades were drawn. The sister volunteered that her sister loved that baby and was trying to get one of her own but her boyfriend just couldn’t seem to get her pregnant. Finally the older sister came to the door with the baby. The vice principal explained to the girls that both of them would be taken to school and we would drive them. I took the baby and deactivated it and we delivered the third grader to her elementary school and then the eighth grader back to our school.
She showed no shame and her attendance dropped off. She was flunking all of her classes due to poor attendance and lack of participation. I have always wondered whatever happened to her and if she was ever able to have children. Hopefully she was able to absorb some of the information in my class but I have no way of knowing.
954 words
7/31/2022
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