TITLE OF THE SUCCESS STORY
Parenthood In School
COUNTRY WHERE IT TOOK PLACE
Romania
AUTHOR OF THE SUCCESS STORY
Parent
SCHOOL TYPOLOGY
High Secondary School
THEMATIC AREA
Students with learning difficulties
DESCRIPTION OF THE SUCCESS STORY
This is the story of my daughter Alexandra. She is now student in 10th grade and is the mother of a ten months boy.
During 5th to 8th grade my daughter was the first in her generation. She was admitted in 9th grade at an elite high school in the capital of our county. But we live in a village at 40 km distance from that city and the financial burden to support her at the school where she was admitted was too heavy. Thus, we decided to transfer our daughter to a high school closer to home. This school is at 15 km from our home and is easier for us to have her travel everyday to school and back home than to have her living in a school hostel (like at the previous school). But the start of the second semester was quite a nightmare for us - the entire family. Having Alexandra at home, me - as a woman and mother - I noticed something is wrong with her. She started to hide from us and first I thought she grows fat. Looking closer but discretely I identified the changes a pregnancy create. I asked Alexandra and she told me the whole truth of her summer mistake. Being in fourth month an abortion was totally out of the question.
I went to school to talk to Alexandra’s teacher to see what is to be done. We didn’t want to have our daughter abandon school but we thought the pregnancy during the second semester will be a problem. We talked to the tutor of my daughter’s class and she was very understanding and helpful. She gave us very good pieces of advice about what to do next and during the entire semester she kept in touch with Alexandra to help her with lessons and everything else needed to have a good scholar situation at the end of the year. Alexandra gave birth in May and in June she was able to pass the 9th grade. This gave us good hopes our daughter will graduate high school in good conditions even if she is mother and the responsibilities in her life increased a lot. Now she is in 10th grade and until now her scholar situation is even better than in 9th grade. We help raising her son so she can have more time for school and now everything seems to go to right direction for all of us.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
A possible explanation of the success can be the willing of all persons involved to find the best solution for Alexandra's situation. The parents decided to support and help her despite the disappointment they first felt from a child they expected to be an eminent student. The girl chose to continue her study having her parents help with the newborn. The teachers involved understood her situation and accepted to reschedule the evaluations for Alexandra after she gave birth to her son. Even her classmates had a very understanding and helpful attitude towards their new colleague (she came among them at the beginning of the second semester).
This experience has a huge potential of transferability because nowadays more and more teenagers begin their sexual life too early without knowing or thinking at the consequences. Also because of old conceptions about life there are parents which still don't accept situations like Alexandra's one and they punish their children for a mistake like this, forcing them to abandon school. There are even teachers in school that are hard to accept a student with such a problem and they might have a wrong attitude toward a person which, in fact, needs a bit of help from them.
We are all aware that a story like the one presented above is not one we wish but it might happen. From here we can learn how to deal when it occurs with the best rate of success.