Month: February 2021

The next issue I wanted to bring to light was diversity within the teaching world, and the importance it holds for minority students. According to an American Community Survey, 80 percent of young teachers (individuals of the ages of 25 to 34 with a bachelor’s degree) varying from the level of elementary to high school are white. This is extremely disproportionate in comparison to the demographics of our nation’s students, which only consists of only approximately 50% white children. On the contrary, while black children make up 13% of students, only 8% of young teachers are black, and while 24% of our country’s students are Hispanic only 9% of young teachers are Hispanic. This leads to a serious issue regarding representation in the classroom. Having a same-race teacher is extremely important to developing young adults, as it provides them with a role model and an example to look up to. 

This issue is a vicious cycle, as one of the proposed reasons for this lack of representation in the teaching force stems from disparities in graduation rates. 95% of Asian students and 94% of white students will graduate high school, as compared to 89% of Black students and 76% of Hispanic students. This rate then leads to even more drastic differences within the statistics of individuals with Bachelor’s degrees; take for example that 40% of white students and 95% of Asian students earn a bachelor’s degree while only 21% of black students and 16% of Hispanic students earn one. Less minority students with bachelor’s degrees means less students that will go on to become teachers, thus leading to less minority teachers to serve as role models for younger generations. 

Why is it so important to have a same-race teacher? If there is a lack of racial representation within the classroom, minority students may believe they have less opportunity and therefore feel less inspired to further pursue their education. Besides just serving as a role model, a same-race teacher could lead to stronger bonds between students and teachers, and in some cases could even serve as a translator or friend to a minority student adjusting to a different culture. According to findings from the Institute of Labor Economics, an underprivileged black student who encounters a same-race teacher within primary school is 40% less likely to drop out. This elucidates the fact that racial representation in teaching could mean all the difference for a developing young adult. 

 

Another issue within American public schools that I’ve witnessed firsthand is our nation’s weak and uninformative sex education program. 

In the year 2017 alone, more than 194,000 babies were born to girls between the ages of 15 to 19 in the United States. In my high school class alone, which consisted of only about 250 girls, three of my classmates carried teenage pregnancies to term. The U.S is notorious for its teen birth rate, which is drastically higher than other Western countries. I believe that the root of this problem lies not within the individual, but rather our country’s education system. 

Only 24 states- less than half- actually mandate sex education, and 34 mandate HIV education. To make matters worse, only an estimated 50 percent of our country’s high schools and 20 percent of middle schools cover all 16 topics labelled as necessary by the CDC. According to Catherine Brown, former vice president of Teach for America, only 10 states and D.C actually mention important concepts such as “consent” “healthy relationships” and “assault”. Instead, American sex education is primarily based on the policy of abstinence, or the complete restraint from sex altogether. This system is largely kept in place because parents worry that their children are more likely to be sexually active if they receive comprehensive sex education. However, studies have shown that teenagers are going to participate in sexual acts regardless, meaning that they are just less informed when they make these decisions. According to Planned Parenthood, 43 percent of teenage girls and 53 percent of teenage boys only learned about birth control after they had sex for the first time. 

There also lies some disparities in the matter of this issue. According to the CDC, lower incomes lead to significantly higher teen pregnancy rates, teens in foster care are twice as likely to become pregnant, and the birth rates of Hispanic and black teens are almost two times higher than that of white teens. The issue of teen pregnancy also contributes to a lower graduation rate. The CDC found that only 50 percent of pregnant teens go on to complete high school. So, what does the solution to this problem look like?

In my opinion, the first step would be mandatory comprehensive sex education across the country. What constitutes “comprehensive” sex ed? I believe the program should cover topics such as sexual health, safe practices and birth control, healthy relationships and sexual identity. Take San Francisco sex education for example: the program begins in middle school and covers everything from puberty to identity to refusal skills. Another great example is the Netherlands, with a teen pregnancy rate that is eight times lower than that of the United States. Their program starts at the age of 4 years old, starting with concepts like personal boundaries and saying no, and working its way up to heavier topics like sexual relationships and contraception as students get older. In the long run, this program stresses the importance of the bond between two partners, and leads to much higher levels of contentment in sexual relationships. While 70% of Americans report that they regret not waiting longer to become sexually active, the majority of Dutch individuals recall their first time was a “fun and positive” experience. 

As of right now, our country is failing its youth. We are not giving teens the tools they need to make informed and responsible decisions. We can learn lots from other nations and tackle the issue of teen pregnancy head on by simply improving our education system.