WDYT? Baby High...

KellyMRocks

Have any of you seen the special on MTV called Baby High?

It is about TAPP High School in Kentucky. TAPP stands for Teenage Parenting Program. It is a school for pregnant/teen moms. 

The school has a health clinic,  offers birth control, a nursery/preschool and even carseats on the school bus.

This is the only school of it's kind in the country.  From watching the show it looks like the principal and councilors are super involved in the girls lives and with helping them stay on track.

I  am not sure how the school is funded or what their statistics are as far as girls graduation and moving on to some kind of college or technical training.

I know a lot of people thought it was bad that the girls on Teen Mom were getting paid so much for making bad choices...just curious what you think about the TAPP school? Would you like to see more programs available like this?

scrapmama2201

I don't think pregnancy should mark the end of a teenager's educational life. I applaud schools such as TAPP for providing young teen moms the opportunity and support needed to obtain an education and ultimately provide a better life for themselves and their children.

One of the teen moms on the MTV show broke my heart when she was trying to get her knuckle headed boyfriend to see just how much the baby changed her life versus his. While it's reality, it isn't fair in the least.

SarahCee

***sigh*** I miss cable.

I have not seen anything about this show or this school. My first instinct is no- I don't want to see schools like this opening. My fear is that teenagers would think that they can still be normal kids if they had a baby by being able to go to a TAPP school. I think that there should definitely be programs offered to help these kids out with their education, but they should not be catered to, if that makes sense. I don't think that it would hurt anyone if ALL highschools had some sort of clinic and offered BC. My brother was a teen dad, I hated seeing him (and the mom and my neice) go through that. I just wish kids would keep it in their pants and stop being stupid about sex, it seems like it's getting worse. my 2 cents.

2bearichards

scrapmama2201:

I don't think pregnancy should mark the end of a teenager's educational life. I applaud schools such as TAPP for providing young teen moms the opportunity and support needed to obtain an education and ultimately provide a better life for themselves and their children.

 

Couldn't have said it any better.

 

Mrs.BoomBoom

I have mixed feelings.  I am really jealous of my student's who can put their babies in the on campus daycare and go visit them whenever they want while my child is 20 min across town.  I don't think their academic lives should stop but sometimes things are made easier for them than maybe they should be.  At the same time, it's best for the baby to have a mom who stays in school.  I just wish adoption was more of an option...most teens are too selfish for that though.

megan0071234

I was a teen mom (19), but I had already finished HS. I am still in college trying to finish by degree though, and have been so since my DS was 4 (6 years part time). My parents offered me no help to finish college, and something like this at a college level would have been so incredibly helpful.

I think that everyone should have the ability to finish the educational level of their choice and make better decisions to help their families. The only way to really reach the cycle of teen pregnancy is to have these girls educated and providing more for their families so it is not just these girls having babies, their kids having babies etc because they no no different.

 

megan0071234

Also, there is a center here in Santa Clara that is a live in program for teen/young parents. You live there, get supervised, take parenting classes, have a curfew, get daycare & school tuition assistance, etc. I lived there for almost 4 years and it really got me back into shape and showed me how to be a good mom when my mom wouldnt do it. There should be more programs like that- all of us that lived there grew incredibly over the time we spent there & really learned to be better parents.

futrkingsley

SarahCee:

I just wish kids would keep it in their pants and stop being stupid about sex, it seems like it's getting worse. my 2 cents.

The rate of teen pregnancy dropped dramatically from the early 90s to the early 2000s.  It has risen slightly in recent years as abstinance education took hold in public schools.

As for the show, I haven't heard of it nor seen it.  Programs like it really help the individuals in the programs and I can't imagine they "encourage" teen pregnancy.  The forces that do encourage it are existing in the community already and without support, the parents and children do struggle and continue to do so for generations sometimes.  The key is to think of the parents as parents and not as children when thinking about the issue -- what kind of help would you need if you didn't have a job or place to live?

 

MadameD517

scrapmama2201:

I don't think pregnancy should mark the end of a teenager's educational life. I applaud schools such as TAPP for providing young teen moms the opportunity and support needed to obtain an education and ultimately provide a better life for themselves and their children.

I have to agree. I haven't heard anything about the school but it sounds pretty amazing. It seems like the only way to break the cycle of girls dropping out just because of becoming a teen mom. 

Celyn

I think it's awesome.  I went to a Catholic high school and didn't know very many kids there who graduated as a virgin, so just about any single one of them could have been accidentally pregnant.  It didn't matter their parents' income or their sex education, all it takes is a broken condom (assuming they bothered to use one) and the class valedictorian who has an acceptance letter from an Ivy League school is in the same boat at the mediocre student who was thinking maybe.  I think schools like that are awesome.  They certainly won't encourage girls to have babies -- the ones who are so inclined as to actually try to get pregnant don't need any incentives.  The others shouldn't be doomed to a life of poverty and welfare, as so many teen moms are, simply because they made a mistake.  My birthmom was a teenager who couldn't even tell her family that she was pregnant.  I should hope that some things have changed in the last 40 years.

soon2Bkranz

I so disagree with it. I keep typing and un-typing... since I dont know how to explain it but my gut says no. I think it makes it too comfortable and too easy...

Also it pisses me off so so much that its a girls only school. Seems pretty hipocritical to me

sunshyne28

I think something like this TAPP program is really awesome.  I work closely with (mostly postpartum) teen moms and if we had something like this in the community I work in, it would really help tremendously.  

I think this community in KT has figured out that you must help the ones that are most at risk for multiple issues later on (the baby).  The BEST way to help that baby is to help the parent.  We all want to help the babies/kids but really the best way to do that at this point in their lives is to help mom/dad.  If the community doesn't intervene and provide services for young moms/dads, it may cost the community much more in the end/future.  And the ones who suffer most will be the babies/kids.      

StefandTodd

MadameD517:

scrapmama2201:

I don't think pregnancy should mark the end of a teenager's educational life. I applaud schools such as TAPP for providing young teen moms the opportunity and support needed to obtain an education and ultimately provide a better life for themselves and their children.

I have to agree. I haven't heard anything about the school but it sounds pretty amazing. It seems like the only way to break the cycle of girls dropping out just because of becoming a teen mom. 

I completely agree, and if I wasn't nesting from my phone I'd add more to it. Quickly though, I'll say that my mom was PG with me at 15, my brother at 16 and 29 years later she still does not have a high school diploma or GED. Not surprisingly, my brother went on to have a child at 16 himself. We grew up poor, struggling, and I was lucky to get out of all that only because of my dads family. Oh yeah, my dad - who has a masters degree now btw. Young mothers need these programs. But it's not for them - for their innocent children!

amyfelice

I too think it's a very good thing but expensive and unrealistic in the general urban environment due to lack of fund though most likely. 

One thing I see happening with teen moms is that they live with their own moms have to give their baby to the grandparent for childcare a lot of the time. Then they lose all their authority as the parent and the baby winds up calling the grandmother "mama" and the mom by their first name. I don't like when this happens because the grandmother is likely to spoil the kid and the mom can't implement any kind of discipline/rules/structure.  This becomes a big problem and the kids wind up having a lot of behavioral issues. I think it's much better for the mom to learn parenting skills, get an education, be independent and get out of her parents' house most of the time, and have QUALITY daycare on campus. 

So may teen moms really want to do the right thing, I really admire their efforts but there are just too many forces working against them.  

ETA: I agree with the PP's that this is not encouraging teen motherhood any more than HPV vaccine is encouraging teen sex. It happens. That's it, and what do we want the outcome to be?