Career-Counseling Programs and Pregnant Teenagers.
There was a time in our cultural history when teen pregnancy was something that, socially, simply didn't exist. While thousands of teens have become pregnant every year for centuries, it has only been in the last three decades that teen-pregnancy has been addressed in any kind of open manner by the press, the schools, and our families. Not so very long ago, girls who "got in trouble" were often sent to hospitals or the homes of very distant relatives to have their babies in privacy and give them up for adoption to return later to their lives as they once were. For those who did not have the luxury of being packed away, schools actively prevented them from attending, social circles and venues barred the unwed teen mother, and the rate of married-too-young couples was very high. The unwed mother was a pariah, unable to find work, and most often unable to be wed once the baby arrived; in short, her life was effectively over. Now, however, we as a community have the opportunity to help our pregnant teenage girls achieve a full and rewarding life with few of those antiquated barriers. The problem is that we have few structures developed within our school systems for career and life counseling specifically designed to help this population. The information that follows is a justification for the development of a comprehensive career-counseling program will directly improve the current and future lives of pregnant teenage girls.
