Children of Teen Moms

Liv Schaub

As the sun sets upon the horizon of the New York City skyline, the beautiful colors fade to a mystic black. Tonight is like every other night for James, a nineteen year old boy. He descends out of the apartment building with a lot on his mind. James is headed to catch up with his friends in the ally to take a couple hits and make his mind go numb. The reasoning for this? James’ life is intolerable.

His mother, Patricia, had him at the young age of only sixteen, and his father fled as soon as James was born. Patricia works two jobs and barely spends enough time with her son; not reassuring that he performs well in school or even stays out of trouble. He already repeated 9^th grade from lack of attending school and could repeat his senior year if he does not get his act together. But if only James knew that he is not alone on this rollercoaster of a life because of being the son of a teen mother.

Children of teen moms do worse in school than those born to older parents with half failing a grade. “They are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade in school and are more likely to drop out of high school than those born to older women.” In addition, children born to teen parents are less likely to finish high school, and have a lower performance on standardized tests. “Many children born to teen moms have behavioral problems, juvenile delinquency and conflict with authority” (Phil).

As James could prove right if he keeps up his baboonish actions, the sons of teenage mothers are 13 percent more likely to end up in prison. These children are also 22 percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves. “Since their parents may still be young and not raised in the right conditions themselves, it is said that they are unaware of the ways to discipline their children so teach them the right ways of life because they are still learning the right ways themselves” (Baldwin and Cain)

And as James turns 20, he finds himself in a hospital holding his girlfriends hand while she is giving birth to their son, Aedan. It was all a mistake though; James had been high while they had been having sex. He of course wishes that he wouldn’t have wanted his mind to go numb and been that stupid. Now, Aedan will have to live the awful teen mother life that James did. Real question, will James stay or abandon his son just like his father did?

Final Draft!

Stereotyping at a Young Age

As the sun sets upon the horizon of the New York City skyline, the beautiful red and orange colors fade to a mystic black. Aban, a turbaned Middle Eastern man, paces north toward home from a hard day of work as a financial assistant.  Parading south down the same street as Aban is a nice young family, so giddy and giggly after a successful night out at their favorite restaurant. As Aban approaches the young family, their giggles turn to gasps as the two young children, 4 and 7 years of age, fiercely look into each others eyes as if a man was murdered right in front of them.

“Oh no, we better run! The Muslim is going to bomb us like we’re the twin towers!” Shouts out the 7 year old as they quickly scatter away. But Aban was used to the critics. He got called ‘terrorist’ and other harsh names, wherever he went and some people would give him an evil glare as if he was literally the one behind the attacks. But on the inside, Aban was nice gentlemen who wanted a large family and beautiful wife, not the stereotype of a terrorist he had achieved.

Stereotyping is “a form of pre judgment that is as prevalent in today’s society as it was 2000 years ago.” Now, more so than ever, with the new war and terrorist attacks, America continues to deal with stereotyping. This “social attitude has stood the test of time and received much attend by social psychologists and philosopher alike.” Although it is controversial, some believe that stereotyping started at childhood. (Schneider)

John Stossel and Kristina Kendall of ABC News, put out an interview on the “Phsycology of Stereotyping” This study concludes that stereotyping begins at childhood.

"20/20" brought together three groups of kids and showed them pictures of two men; one Arab, the other Asian. When asked which man the children prefer, they all said the Chinese man. Most of the children preferred the Chinese man "because he looks nicer and he has a smile on." But both men were smiling. When asked why they did not like the Arab man one said, "I think he's weird." Another child said, "He's like the scary dude.”

Next, they showed a picture of a white man and a picture of a black man. The children commented on the black man and one said, "He looks mean." Another referred to him as "FBI's Most Wanted." Another commented, "He looks like he's a basketball player."

When shown the white mans picture one said, "He's nice." And another said, "I think he's nice except he might be mad about something." In reality, the black man was just a photo found off the internet and the photo of a white man was of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

But where do these children get influenced from? At a very young age, many children are exposed to movies, whether at the theater or on videos at home. One major producer of children’s movies is the Disney Corporation. Some of the more current releases with racial stereotyping include Aladdin, the Lion King, Tarzan, and Peter Pan.

“The Aladdin character in that movie portrays “bad” Arabs with thick foreign accents while Anglicized Jasmine and Aladdin speak in standard Americanized English” (Giroux). Aladdin looks and sounds like a typical American boy. One of the evil characters, Jafar, looks very Arabic. Some of the lyrics in the movie convey racist

overtones: “I come from a land…where they cut off your ears if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” (Giroux).

Also, In the Lion King, the hyenas clearly speak in a kind of street, inner city African American dialect and they are considered the bad guys. Referring back to the 20/20 study, the children believed the black man was the ‘bad’ and ‘mean’ one.

Tarzan, which was released in 1999, is set in Africa but does not feature any black people. It is difficult to identify animated Disney movies with positive black role models, which may be why children have such a different view on them.

Another common stereotype noted in Disney movies is the Native Americans. In the film Peter Pan, Princess Tiger Lily’s father represents the negative stereotype of being uncivilized and savage as he holds Wendy’s brothers hostage.

Most Disney moves are essentially trying to portray lessons and attributes for younger children to acquire, but while delivering that, they also deliver an increased amount of stereotyping. Because of this, at only a young age children begin to stereotype people and it sticks with them for the rest of their lives. As the 20/20 study shows, many children judge other people on what they look like or what their skin color is at only a young age. It could possibly be outward influences, like Disney Corporation movies that inhabit them to do this. Not only is it something we have no control over, it is something we are automatically prone to do because it is, in the end, the way we were brought up. 

Draft

As the sun sets upon the horizon of the New York City skyline, the beautiful red and orange colors fade to a mystic black. Aban, a Middle Eastern man, paces north toward home from a hard day of work as a financial assistant.  Parading south down the same street as Aban is a nice young family, so giddy and giggly after a successful night out at their favorite restaurant. As Aban approaches the young family, their giggles turn to gasps as the two young children, 4 and 7 years of age, fiercely look into each others eyes as if a man was murdered right in front of them.

“Oh no, we better run! The Muslim is going to bomb us like we’re the twin towers!” Shouts out the 7 year old as they quickly scatter away. But Aban was used to the critics. He got called ‘terrorist’ and other harsh names, wherever he went and some people would give him an evil glare as if he was literally the one behind the attacks. But on the inside, Aban was nice gentlemen who wanted a large family and beautiful wife, not of the stereotype of a terrorist he had achieved.

Stereotyping is a form of pre judgment that is as prevalent in today's society as it was 2000 years ago. Now, more so than ever, with the new war and terrorists attacks America has seen and dealt with stereotyping. It is a social attitude that has stood the test of time and received much attention by social psychologists and philosophers alike. Many approaches to, or theories of stereotyping have thus been raised.

John Stossel and Kristina Kendall of ABC News, put out an interview on the “Phsycology of Stereotyping” This study concludes that stereotyping begins at childhood.

"20/20" brought together three groups of kids and showed them pictures of two men; one Arab, the other Asian. When asked which man the children prefer, they all said the Chinese man. Most of the children preferred the Chinese man "because he looks nicer and he has a smile on." But both men were smiling

When asked why they did not like the Arab man one said, "I think he's weird." Another child said, "He's like the scary dude.”

Next, they showed a picture of a white man and a picture of a black man. The children commented on the black man and one said, "He looks mean." Another referred to him as "FBI's Most Wanted." Another commented, "He looks like he's a basketball player."

When shown the white mans picture one said, "He's nice." And another said, "I think he's nice except he might be mad about something."

In reality, the black man was just a photo found off the internet and the photo of a white man was of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

As this study shows, stereotyping is an attribute we have acquired at a very young age.  Not only is it something we have no control over, it is something we are automatically prone to do because it is, in the end, the way we were brought up. 

Over used slang words

Like. When you hear that word, you believe it is a synonym of something that pleases you. But today, people use that word as if it triggers their mind to think of something else they want to say. And instead of the sentence being, “I really like that jacket, when can I get it?” it becomes “That jacket is really like pretty. When I wear it everyone will be like oh my god it’s like amazing!” Kids these days especially use it a lot when talking and can rack up the likes in each sentence to over three. Like and um are also similar because when you can’t think of much more to say, like comes into your brain as something that will replace your empty mind with a thought.

Memior: Final Draft

Olivia Schaub

National Champions

As we are waiting for the Flemington Pioneers to be announced onto the mat in Orlando, Florida, our hearts are beating so loud it’s as if they were plugged into a sound system and thumped for the whole stadium to hear. Like we are dressed like the middle of winter and standing in Costa Rica, our bodies are drenched in sweat. But our minds? Anywhere but in that stadium.

My mind continually wondered back to our last competition before Nationals, when we got second place and our rivals came in first. The feeling I got after they announced that they won is somewhat like when your heart is in your toes so far that if it exploded your toes would be painted red. When they came in bragging they won like a little kid would brag about getting the fresher baked cookie than his friend. After that competition our coaches doubted us as if we had just lost everything we ever accomplished. “Third place or fourth place would be exceptional!” They communicated to us on the plane ride down.

But these thoughts were cut off suddenly by a man speaking “And up next from Flemington, New Jersey is the Flemington Pioneers!” Any worries we had turned into a fake smile trying to cover it all. As we ran out on the mat it seemed as if we were dropped into a cave and the lights were just on us; everything else was pitch black. The music was so loud it sounded as if my own personal band was playing right on my ear drum. We performed each move so precisely that if you had taken a picture everyone would be in sync with one another. Our first pyramid had gone up so well and the crowds “oohs” and “aahs” came over us as if we all had just dropped dead and they were surprised. In our dance we all shook our hips as if were Latina and had the most extravagant faces on.  Our routine was flawless until the stunt we changed two hours before performing on the mat, somehow didn’t turn out. Everything went so fast that my other base didn’t have enough time to “catch the foot” and we fell. As the music came to a sudden stop we realized what had just happened, maybe our coaches were right. Maybe we were a third place team.

 The warm tears started falling down my face as if I had just broken my leg and was awaiting the arrival of the ambulance. As we got off the mat everyone was yelling, “why didn’t your group “catch the foot”? If we loose, it’s your entire fault.” Our name wouldn’t go down in history and we would be failures. My stunt group would be forever known as the ones that made your team loose Nationals all because of one silly mistake. And to make it even worse, they had our whole routine on replay after we had just performed so we could see how we fell and could have possibly taken away our first place prize. I was so upset, I couldn’t even watch. Instead I walked down to see my coaches, but suddenly a man came up to me out of no where and saw my tears and kindly said, “I know you guys fell, but I just wanted to say that you were one of the best teams up there and I wouldn’t be surprised if you took home those glistening white jackets.” That made me cry even harder. What is this guy thinking? I know he was trying to be nice and all, but thinking of those white jackets not being on my back made me want to crawl up in a ball and eat ice cream until years later.

As awards were being called we all had but a smile on our faces. Everyone kept on glancing over to see what my group’s facial expressions were. They expected us to be depressed and crying, because if we did loose it would be our entire fault. That charming mans voice just kept replaying through my head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you took home those glistening white jackets” Perhaps the man was right, one little fault doesn’t always have to change the rest of our performance because other than that we were magnificent. “Let’s get these awards underway!”  Fifth place, not us. Fourth place, not us. Third place, NOT US. This could not be happening! It was between us and our rivals that beat us the competition before. “Were down to the last two here!” After those words were spoken, all of our hand grips suddenly got tighter. We all shut our eyes and tried to take in what might be happening. “And our second place team from Washington, New Jersey, Rigel RidgeRams!”

It took us yet a second to realize that we had just won the National Championships in Orlando, Florida. We all jumped up and instead of crying because of sadness, this time we were crying for joy. Our name would go down in history and my group would no longer have to face the bullying of making our team loose. Those silky white jackets would be ours. As the man handed us the first place trophy, he looked like Zac Efron in our eyes, the god to us at the time. The satisfaction of lifting that trophy above our heads was greater than any other I have ever experienced. Later that night as we walked through the parks with our glistening white jackets, and everyone congratulated  us with that same fake smile we wore as we ran onto the mats. We were the Queens of that park and not to mention, National Champions.

Theme; mistakes are not always a contributing factor to the outcome of something

This is the performance my memior is about!

http://varsity.com/event/1443/2011_national_hs_cheerleading_championship.aspx

Memoir: Rough Draft

            As we are awaiting our decadence onto the mat in Orlando, Florida, our hearts are beating so loud it’s as if they were plugged into a sound system and thumped for the whole stadium to hear. Our palms are sweating as if we are in a sauna, dressed like it’s the middle of winter. Our minds? Anywhere but in that stadium.

My mind continusiously went back to our last competition before Nationals, where we got second place and our rivals came in first. The feeling when your heart is in your toes so far that if it exploded your toes would be painted red. When they came in bragging that they won like a little kid would brag about getting the fresher baked cookies than his friend. After that competition our coachs doubted us as if we had just lost everything we ever accomplished. “third place or fourth place would be good!” They told us on the plane ride down.

But these thoughts were cut off by a man speaking “And up next from Flemington, New Jersey is the Flemington Pioneers!” Any worries we had turned into a fake smile trying to cover it all. As we ran out on the mat it seemed as if we were dropped into a cave and the lights were just on us and everything else was pitch black. The music sounded like it was my own personal band playing right in my ear. Our routine was flawless until the stunt we changed two hours before performing on the mat, somehow didn’t turn out. She slipped and we fell, our whole pyramid. As the music came to a sudden stop we realized what had just happened, maybe our coaches were right. Maybe we were a third place team. The warm tears started falling down my face as if I had just broken my leg. As we got off the mat everyone was yelling, “why didn’t your group catch the foot? If we loose, it’s all your fault.” Our name wouldn’t go down in history. We would be failures. And to make it even worse, they had our whole routine on replay after we had just performed so we could see how we fell and could have possibly taken away our first place prize. As we were walking down to see our coaches, a man came up to me and saw my tears and kindly said, “I know you guys fell, but I just wanted to say that you were one of the best teams up there and I wouldn’t be surprised if you took home those glistening white jackets.” That made me cry even harder. What is this guy thinking? We’re terrible, anyone would beat us. As awards were being called we all had but a smile on our faces. Fifth place, not us. Fourth place, not us. Third place, NOT US. This could not be happening! We could possibly win this and prove our coaches wrong. It was between us and our rivals that beat us the competition before. Second place, Rams… We all jumped up and instead of crying because of sadness, we were crying for joy. We had just won Nationals in Orlando, Florida and our name would go down in history. Those silky white jackets would be ours. We proved our coaches wrong. The satisfaction of lifting up that trophy was if I had just won the loterry. As we walked through the parks at night with our glistening white jackets, everyone congratulated  us with the fake smile we wore as we ran onto the mats. The team that  wanted fourth of fifth place our now National Champions.