There are numerous theories and perspectives regarding the causes and possible solutions of juvenile delinquency. Before reading Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity and Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy I had my own theories regarding juvenile delinquency and how education, teen pregnancy, the family system and poverty played a role in youth becoming part of the juvenile justice system. While reading these two novels, the authors, Ann Ferguson and Kristen Luker, challenged my opinions on juvenile delinquency and helped me develop a better and much more sufficient point of view of the causes, effects and solutions to these problems.
Before reading Ann Ferguson’s Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making …show more content…
Ferguson noted that the “official explanation” of this categorization was to produce a racial balance between students and teachers in the classroom. By developing an official curriculum that segregated students based on ethnicity, a discrepancy between students arose. Ferguson also notes that majority of the students in the Gifted and Talented (GATE) program were white and the students who were considered below average, failing or at risk were predominately black and poor (54). Ferguson goes on to discuss the reasoning behind the discrepancies between black and white students and their performance. When a school’s policies have an official curriculum that racially divides students and gives the upper hand to certain kinds of students, this leads to segregation in the classroom as well. Within the school system and in society, African-American youth have been deemed as adults instead of the children that they actually are (81). Ferguson goes on to mention that when black boys commit crime there is no question as to why they did it, but they are automatically judged by society as unsalvageable thugs who need to be locked up. A long American history of racial disparity has brought society to develop racial stereotypes that are used in the classroom and affect the minority children and the resources they get in the classroom. …show more content…
Luker mentions that teenage mothers tend to be poor, poor teenagers become teenage mothers and that women who are in pursuit of an education and career are not having children until they are in their thirties and forties (12). Luker goes on to also talk about the changes in middle-class norms. As I have already noted, middle-class norms used to consist of a working husband and a stay at home wife with children. Today middle-class norms involve people in society who are “postponing marriage and childbearing to an ever greater extent, having fewer and fewer children, and forming a growing number of two-career marriages”(102). Not only are men working, but also women are working to develop careers for themselves that they continue to work even after they do have children. In response to my thoughts on teenage mothers raising children, Luker notes “eighty-seven percent of single parents are in fact single mothers” (103). This is a disturbing number that identifies the reason to why teenage mothers end up living in poverty. They are left to fend for themselves and the fathers can walk away from the situation and never hold any responsibility. Without the help of the father, most teenage mothers must work and provide for a their child on their own and in the teenage years, the only kind of jobs they can get are low-wage
Before reading Ann Ferguson’s Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making …show more content…
Ferguson noted that the “official explanation” of this categorization was to produce a racial balance between students and teachers in the classroom. By developing an official curriculum that segregated students based on ethnicity, a discrepancy between students arose. Ferguson also notes that majority of the students in the Gifted and Talented (GATE) program were white and the students who were considered below average, failing or at risk were predominately black and poor (54). Ferguson goes on to discuss the reasoning behind the discrepancies between black and white students and their performance. When a school’s policies have an official curriculum that racially divides students and gives the upper hand to certain kinds of students, this leads to segregation in the classroom as well. Within the school system and in society, African-American youth have been deemed as adults instead of the children that they actually are (81). Ferguson goes on to mention that when black boys commit crime there is no question as to why they did it, but they are automatically judged by society as unsalvageable thugs who need to be locked up. A long American history of racial disparity has brought society to develop racial stereotypes that are used in the classroom and affect the minority children and the resources they get in the classroom. …show more content…
Luker mentions that teenage mothers tend to be poor, poor teenagers become teenage mothers and that women who are in pursuit of an education and career are not having children until they are in their thirties and forties (12). Luker goes on to also talk about the changes in middle-class norms. As I have already noted, middle-class norms used to consist of a working husband and a stay at home wife with children. Today middle-class norms involve people in society who are “postponing marriage and childbearing to an ever greater extent, having fewer and fewer children, and forming a growing number of two-career marriages”(102). Not only are men working, but also women are working to develop careers for themselves that they continue to work even after they do have children. In response to my thoughts on teenage mothers raising children, Luker notes “eighty-seven percent of single parents are in fact single mothers” (103). This is a disturbing number that identifies the reason to why teenage mothers end up living in poverty. They are left to fend for themselves and the fathers can walk away from the situation and never hold any responsibility. Without the help of the father, most teenage mothers must work and provide for a their child on their own and in the teenage years, the only kind of jobs they can get are low-wage