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Emerson Alternative and CareerTech Helping Teen Moms
Good things are happening
for teenage mothers and their young children in a setting that’s
traditionally been labeled a school for “bad kids.”
Emerson Alternative School,
one of the oldest alternative schools in Oklahoma, finds CareerTech’s
Family and Consumer Sciences Education (FACS) programs play an important
role in making good things happen.
Business and Information Technology
Education and Early Care and Education, also CareerTech programs, are
offered as electives to the students.
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Lucia deLara, a senior at Emerson
and mother of 20-month-old Jose, said she was aware of Emerson’s
reputation, but didn’t know she would ever need the services
it offers.
She said she was not
aware of the school’s services to pregnant teenagers and teen
moms until after the birth of her baby, Jose. That’s when
the counselor at John Marshall High School helped her find daycare
and to enroll at Emerson, located in downtown Oklahoma City.
The all-female classes
for high school and middle school students range in age from 11-to-22
years of age. State law limits class size to 15.
The school has a number
of pregnant teens enrolled, transfers from other Oklahoma City metro
area schools.
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Lucia deLara and Jose
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have found that students are more successful in graduating if they
come back here after having their babies, rather than return to their
home schools,” Emerson’s Catherine Wilkinson said.
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Wilkinson, the school’s FACS
instructor and mentoring coordinator, teaches courses such as independent
living skills, food nutrition and personal development. She also
matches downtown Oklahoma City business people as mentors for Emerson
students.
Classes such as these
have proven effective at keeping young mothers like deLara in school,
graduating on time and developing into a well-rounded young adults.
Wilkinson describes deLara
as a good student and active in FACS programs and its student organization
Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). Delara’s
favorite class is FACS’ Teen Outreach Program (T.O.P.).
That program features
a nationally recognized youth development curriculum designed to
help young people pursue positive academic and personal goals by
building a healthy self-image and commitment to serving the community,
and career exploration.
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The FACS class, Early
Care and Education (formerly Occupational Child Care), is an elective
taught by Glenda Crabtree. FCCLA competitive events are currently
in full swing across the state, and Emerson is well represented.
“Since all of our
students are parents, they value raising children as well as teaching
them,” Wilkinson said. “Our students won second place
in the FCCLA regional competition in Interpersonal Communication.
Next, we’ll take our chapter’s service project to state
competition, with an opportunity to go to the July National FCCLA
meeting in Philadelphia.”
Because of Emerson and
the programs it offers, deLara is on track to graduate in May. Recently
named placement captain on Emerson’s academic Decathlon Team,
she wants to go on to college and eventually becoming a pediatrician.
“The majority of
girls who get pregnant in high school, drop out,” deLara said.
“They feel they can’t go to high school after having
a baby for lots of reasons. But, here teachers help you get what
you need to stay in school.”
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And that includes needed support services. Often those services
include daycare, a ride to and from their homes, and even housing
and medical care.
“We have a clinic
on campus with a pediatrician and an obstetrician-gynecologist,”
deLara said. “Transportation is a big problem, but the school
bus Jose and I take has car seats. It picks us up at 6:20 a.m. and
takes us home at 2:40 every afternoon.”
Absenteeism is one of
the biggest obstacles to high school graduation for teenage mothers,
according to Wilkinson.
But, Jose is at home
in the school’s Early Head Start Program, designed for children
from birth to three years. That care is critical in the healthy
development of children and the peace of mind, critical to young
mothers’ success in school.
Wilkinson said FACS course
offerings have changed greatly in recent years. Once known as vocational
home economics, where the curriculum dealt with sewing and cooking,
the new program offerings deal with critical life skills they often
don’t get in other school programs or in the home.
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Sitting on the steps of the Emerson Alternative
School bus are Lucia deLara and her son Jose. Lucia is a senior
in high school, graduating in May. Jose has been going to school
with his mom on this bus, complete with car seats for the young
children of teenage moms who are Emerson students. Jose has been
going to daycare at the school’s Early Head Start program,
while his mom goes to class, since he was four months old.
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“Today, the balance between
work and family is the unique focus of FACS curriculum,” Wilkinson
said. “Our students acquire technical skills for specific occupations
plus the knowledge and skills needed to successfully balance work and
family responsibilities.”
 The
FACS six essential life skill areas include: consumer education, food
science and personal nutrition, housing and home furnishings, marriage
and family life, parenting and child development and personal clothing
management.
But, urban FACS programs are
vastly different from rural FACS programs.
“Emerson is not a community
or neighborhood school, so there’s no local support,” Wilkinson
said. “And, many of these young mothers have few role models with
little-to-no family support, either.
Meeting the needs of
students may even include renaming FACS curriculum.“We
renamed an important piece of our curriculum, changing ‘community
service’ to ‘volunteer service’ because, to many
of these young mothers, community service means serving a court-ordered
pay back to the community due to offenses committed,” Wilkinson
said.
Due to the lack of basic
support systems, the odds in favor of student success are slim.
As a result, instructors wear many hats.
“We are social
workers, mothers, grandmothers, counselors, as well as teachers,”
Wilkinson said. “But, my greatest accomplishment is to see
these girls graduate from high school.”
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posted
4/9l03
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