Evidence
1128 words by inspiration04
Okay…here we go again. Week seven of blogging…I am so excited. Dr. Homan, are you sane? How in the world can you read all of these writings at once? Writing them is bad enough, but reading them is torture! Anyway, I think that before I discuss my project with some researched statistics I will talk about my real life experiences for my inspiration for the project. First, I must say that being from Louisiana has provided some really interesting experiences about life. Our education system is a very big disappointment. In general, the manner in which students are treated in the school system is ridiculous. Most of the educators in the state are underpaid and overworked. Many teachers feel that it is not their job to discipline children to which they did not give birth. I can not entirely accuse the teachers of not being caring. A huge bulk of the problem lies within the children’s households. Since females are giving birth to children at younger and younger ages, it seems as if offspring are becoming more and more out of control. I know that this occurrence is a clear reflection of how society has influenced the female gender in America as a whole. According to the Community Volunteers Association on www.womenshealthaccess.com, at least 40 teenage girls get pregnant in Louisiana every day. This alarming fact has made Louisiana rank number seven of the fifty states and DC in the number of teenage pregnancies and repeat pregnancies. Of these young women, only 50 percent will grauate from high school. In our society, a high school diploma does not account for very much. It is becoming more difficult for individuals, especilly women to find employment with a college degree. This website also showed that teen mothers are likely to only earn half of the lifetime income of women who bear children in their twenties. Personally, I believe that the expectations that I have for myself as a woman stem from the way my mother acted, who she associated with and the rules that she used to raise me. My mother never let me do a lot of things that I thought all the other kids were doing. There were some things that I could not do that I thought were so stupid at the time, but now I am very grateful that she did not let me have my way. These restrictions seemed so small. I always wanted to watch music videos as a youngster, yet my mom would never permit it. She never approved any video except Michael Jackson’s Thriller (which I was terrified of). To this day, I am not familiar with some songs that were apparently popular before I was fifteen years old. My mother also did not allow me to spend the night with any of my school friends before she got a chance to meet their parents. It was always important for my mother to get to know the type of people that I would be around. I could also not put my hair in certain hairstyles. I could not get my hair braided with false hair because my mother thought that was too ghetto. Some hairstyles my mom found to look too grown for a small girl to wear. My mother, a single woman, never had different men coming in and out of our house. My mom rarely went out with a man and made sure that she was always around so that I was never home alone. My mother was also a conservative dresser. She would never wear clothes that were provocative and she never walked out of the house without her hair in place. My mother always looked like a professional. I used to think that my mother was too old fashioned in her method of raising me. However, I think that when I compared my childhood to that of some of my cousins, I am very grateful. One of my cousins is one year older than I am. When we were younger, she was raised by her grandmother (who is my aunt). While living with my aunt, who has old fashioned values like my mom, my cousin was a straight A student. I was also a student that excelled in academics. When my cousin moved to Florida to live with her mother, her ideals and priorities seemed to change. Her mother, who was not very strict, allowed her to have much more freedom in her household. My cousin stopped being concerned about her grades in school and did not even graduate. She is now 20 years old with three young children and no male figure she can rely on for assistance. If she would have continued to live with my aunt, her life may not be as difficult for her as it is now. I think that if younger mothers tried to use more conservative methods for child rearing, there would not be as many children practicing deviant behavior. It is my goal to bring the experiences that my mother provided me to another young woman. I am disgusted at how society portrays women and I am glad that I can hold myself in high esteem. On television, I see women would are usually scantily clad in music videos for male artists. This allows me to think that a young and impressionable girl may get the idea that a woman is to use her body and not her mind. I am disheartened to know that girls aspire to be like the women that they see on television. It is also worse to hear that the women from the videos think that showing off their body will lead to a successful career in acting. It also teaches her that a female should be seen and not heard. The breakdown between mothers and their daughters is also what I believe is another leading cause of the rise in pregnancies among teenage girls. I know that many people believe that the increase in juvenile deviance is due to the increase in women entering the workforce. I do not think that this is true. My mother worked 40 plus hours every week on her job. My mother always made sure that I was well taken care of in a positive environment. For my project, I do not hope to act as a replacement for a girl’s mother, but as a source of support and encouragement for the young woman. I want to show her that a woman is a self-respecting individual. I feel that most girls that like to act out are crying out for attention that they may not be receiving at home. I want to give a young girl attention that will be positive for her.