I was an unlikely high school teacher. My undergraduate degree in biology and graduate degree in journalism didn’t suggest a teaching career, nor had I ever considered one. Nevertheless, after more than twenty years in medical and research laboratories and another decade spent writing and editing articles, I became alternatively certified to teach science. On my fifty-fifth birthday, I entered an Oklahoma high school classroom for the first time to teach pregnant and parenting teen girls at the Margaret Hudson Program.
I’d been a teen mom once, but my situation was quite different from my students. I shared one important experience with them, however. My first pregnancy was unplanned and uninvited. I could appreciate a girl’s horrified reaction to that blue line or plus sign on a pregnancy test strip. By the time I chose a mid-life career change from doing and writing about science to teaching it, my son and daughter had successfully launched families and satisfying careers of their own. I was convinced I had valuable insights about overcoming challenges to share with teen moms that I hoped would inspire them. What I hadn’t counted on was becoming inspired and motivated by my students. I sometimes think I learned as much from them as they learned from me.
The Stakes for Teen Moms
Statistics foresee uncertain futures for pregnant adolescent girls, depending on educational level. About half of pregnant girls between the ages of 15 and 19 will drop out of high school before graduation; only about two percent will have a college degree by age 30. Becoming a mom and a high school dropout at sixteen – or younger – can lead to generational poverty that most never overcome. Some do, but it’s impossible to predict which ones.
Spending eight years in the classroom with pregnant and parenting girls from diverse circumstances taught me to not make assumptions about them. Instead, my commitment to learning the causes and effects of teen pregnancy yielded sometimes surprising facts and guided my intentions.
- Poverty is both a cause and consequence of teen pregnancy.
- Pregnancy is a primary reason girls drop out of high school.
- Sons of teen moms are nearly three times more likely to spend time in jail than sons born to adult mothers.
- Daughters of teen moms are much more likely to become teen mothers themselves.
- U.S. states without sex education requirements for public schools tend to have higher teen pregnancy rates.
- Girls who are victims of child abuse are more likely to become pregnant in their teens.
- Children of teen moms are much more likely to suffer serious health conditions later in life than other children.
- Teen moms are vulnerable to depression, substance abuse, and posttraumatic stress disorder, among other negative impacts.
A high school diploma is key to combatting many of these challenges. It enables enrollment in college or training programs that lead to stable employment. Obtaining a diploma while pregnant or parenting can be difficult, however. Struggling with morning sickness, acid reflux, insomnia, and painful abdominal muscle tears associated with pregnancy can be exhausting. Staying focused on learning the differences between potential and kinetic energy, for instance, or the dynamics of antigen-antibody reactions is understandably tough. A school system that acknowledges and accommodates these difficulties can make all the difference in outcomes for teen moms and their children. I fear too few school systems are willing to do so, given perennial budget shortfalls, teacher shortages, and policies that prioritize state-mandated standards over fulfillment of students’ potential.
Public Policy Affects Outcome
Having a pregnant teenaged daughter, in the mid-1960s, was a family’s burden to deal with – mostly in shamed silence. At the time, many public schools forced pregnant students to drop out of classes until their children were born. Families often preemptively pulled their daughters out of school … quietly. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler includes heartbreaking stories of pregnant girls who were forced to move to residential homes or dormitories in other communities, isolated from their families. There, they awaited the birth of their child – a child they may or may not have been allowed to see before they were surrendered for adoption. My sister was one of those girls in 1966.
Many “pregnancy schools” were established across the U.S. in the 1960s to address the poor health outcomes for teen moms and their babies. Pregnant teens were reluctant to seek medical care during pregnancy, resulting in increased maternal and fetal death rates. The Margaret Hudson Program, where I taught from 2007 to 2015, was created in 1968. Like many pregnancy schools, our program provided nursing care for moms and babies, onsite childcare, mental health and social service counseling, as well as parenting classes. None of these services were mandated by state education standards or state-approved curricula, all of which we were required to implement.
A separate school for pregnant and parenting girls allows students to attend classes in a judgement-free environment, which a public high school certainly does not. However, the separation contributes to the belief that a pregnant girl does not belong among her peers. The perception that pregnancy is “contagious” persists. Before she enrolled in our program, one of my students was promoted against her wishes from sixth to seventh grade after she became pregnant, so that other sixth graders wouldn’t be subjected to a pregnant classmate. Another student told me her father said her baby was “her punishment for having sex,” expressing a common attitude, then and now, toward pregnant teens. Ironically, the boys and men (some of my students’ babies were fathered by adult men) who impregnated my students seldom suffered the same public scorn. “Boys will be boys,” too often excused them from responsibility.
Public policy regarding women’s health puts every pregnant woman, of any age, at risk today. Most are the effect of misplaced priorities. Cuts in state funding at rural hospitals have forced closures in many communities in recent years, meaning some pregnant women must seek maternity care in another county, hours away. OB/GYNs are leaving some states because abortion laws are unclear or punitive, leaving female residents without specialized care for reproductive system diseases. Medicaid, which funds approximately 40 percent of all childbirths in the U.S. is bandied about as an expendable “perk.” Many states have refused federal Medicaid expansion altogether and propose further cuts. Almost half of children and adolescents in the U.S. depend on Medicaid for healthcare and would be negatively affected. More investment in women’s health would contribute to greater dividends in the long run, but short-sighted policies prevail. The sum of these policy decisions perpetuate subtle – and not so subtle – discrimination against women, including pregnant teens, who are most vulnerable.
The teen pregnancy rate peaked at around 11 percent in 1991, before it began to decline. In 2024, the teen pregnancy rate was less than 2 percent. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the decline in teen pregnancy rates is generally attributed to availability of birth control and teens delaying sexual activity. Access to safe abortions was also possible until 2022, which affected rates to a lesser degree. Some states with strict abortion bans, including Texas (where I now live) have already witnessed a rise in teen pregnancy rates in the past two years. It’s too early to say if that increase is related to abortion bans, however. Whatever the reasons for the decline in teen pregnancy rates, almost all the schools for pregnant and parenting teens have been closed, due to dwindling enrollment.
The Margaret Hudson Program closed in 2017, leaving our former students to choose between dropping out, returning to the large high school they’d come from, or attending an alternative campus composed of too many students with discipline problems. It’s possible to attain positive outcomes and meet teen moms’ unique needs within traditional or alternative academic campuses, if legislators or school administrators are willing to address them. While public policies continue a disappointing trend, I’m encouraged by school districts that have stepped up for teen parents, in mostly larger, more progressive districts.
Supportive Educational Environments for Teen Moms
Pregnant and parenting teens need teachers and administrators who understand them. This requires humility and patience – two characteristics my students taught me over time. It’s also true that all pregnant teens are not alike. All experience physical challenges because of their pregnancy, but there are a multitude of diverse mental health, economic, and academic challenges, as well as cultural differences to consider.
Educators must be open to adjusting instruction to fit students’ strengths and weaknesses. Learning is enhanced when individual interests and talents are integrated into lessons. Likewise, students will more likely respond to teachers who meet them where they are and support them in achieving their goals. Setting goals with students can be a healthy first step, in fact. It does no good to lead students toward your goals for them, if their goals are different from yours.
A range of support services can be integrated into academic programs to assist pregnant and parenting students in graduating and becoming responsible parents. Basic services like those incorporated in former pregnancy school models are crucial. Parenting classes or activities designed for parents and children to simply enjoy time together are also important, as is helping plug students into existing community services.
Cultivating relationships based on trust is key. Educators must see their role as not only teachers, but learners. Just as my children taught me, in large part, how to parent, my pregnant students taught me how to be a teacher. They taught me to be flexible in instructional style, to respect their priorities, and to take myself less seriously, among other valuable lessons. After eight years spent teaching and learning from teen moms, I’m more likely to approach new people and situations with curiosity and a willingness to learn from them, which makes my life richer.
What’s the secret to transforming the challenges of teaching teen moms into a rewarding classroom experience?
In What Teaching Teen Moms Taught Me, author Janice Airhart embarks on a transformative journey of discovery at the age of 55 from a career in laboratory science to teaching science to pregnant and parenting teen girls in suburban Oklahoma. Faced with students who are often sick, exhausted, or distracted, she quickly realizes that teaching is more than delivering content as it requires humility, creativity, and responsiveness to unique needs. With limited resources, she integrates science standards with students’ interests and their babies’ needs, finding joy in the challenge. A DNA lab using Everclear highlights her innovative, risky strategies. The book captures the humour, struggles and triumphs of an unconventional classroom.
Ideal for people in the field of education studies, particularly those working with underserved or non-traditional student populations, like special education teacher, school counsellor and professionals interested in alternative teaching methods.
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HEADER IMAGE CREDIT: Illustration by Tim Airhart
An excellent overview of a difficult situation: the challenges and possibilities faced by pregnant and parenting teens. I look forward to learning more about these issues from her book.
Thanks for reading! The book will be released this month.