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Here's what we are seeing in our small Alabama city. We have a high number of Latino children attending school. The kids usually pick up English fairly quickly, and parents make sure they attend school.
Alabama has a law that requires children stay in school until they're 16. After age 16, many many children drop out. Very few actually graduate from high school, and almost none can be found at the local junior college. I also am observing girls as young as 13 and 14 with babies...their own babies, not just occasionally, but every time I go out to a grocery store or the local WalMart. Is this a Latino culture thing? What's the deal?
Here's what we are seeing in our small Alabama city. We have a high number of Latino children attending school. The kids usually pick up English fairly quickly, and parents make sure they attend school.
Alabama has a law that requires children stay in school until they're 16. After age 16, many many children drop out. Very few actually graduate from high school, and almost none can be found at the local junior college. I also am observing girls as young as 13 and 14 with babies...their own babies, not just occasionally, but every time I go out to a grocery store or the local WalMart. Is this a Latino culture thing? What's the deal?
I saw pretty much the same thing in Sacramento back when I lived there. It was such a problem that the city put up billboards all over the city saying in Spanish, "...SEX WITH A MINOR IS A CRIME..." Showing a latino guy in handcuffs.
I have a feeling that education is not stressed in the culture, but I don't know why.
I did read recently that latino teen-age unwed mothers are way up beyond other groups. I would think that because of their emphasis on "family", which we're hearing so much about, and also Catholic religion, that they would be mortified to have their children having babies.
Here's what we are seeing in our small Alabama city. We have a high number of Latino children attending school. The kids usually pick up English fairly quickly, and parents make sure they attend school.
Alabama has a law that requires children stay in school until they're 16. After age 16, many many children drop out. Very few actually graduate from high school, and almost none can be found at the local junior college. I also am observing girls as young as 13 and 14 with babies...their own babies, not just occasionally, but every time I go out to a grocery store or the local WalMart. Is this a Latino culture thing? What's the deal?
Growing up in L.A., Miami and New York City (Areas of high Latin Americans) I can tell you that I had many Latino kids in my classes, most did graduate and most went to college or the military. Many of them now have masters degrees and very nice jobs, including myself and my wife.
So maybe this is a new generation of Latino you have in Alabama?
I will agree that Latinos from other countries, freshly emigrated, are not so high on education or safe sex . It is definitely in the culture and major reason why educated latin families want to move to the US.
It's mainly a socio-economic thing, I believe. Those that are coming here illegally are the poor and downtrodden. They were never raised to value education; it was all about hard work and such. The same could apply to having children at a young age; more hands to help around the house. Those people in Latin America who were raised with different standards; usually those who were on the higher socio-economic scale are some of the most dedicated, educated, and intelligent people that I know.
It's mainly a socio-economic thing, I believe. Those that are coming here illegally are the poor and downtrodden. They were never raised to value education; it was all about hard work and such. The same could apply to having children at a young age; more hands to help around the house. Those people in Latin America who were raised with different standards; usually those who were on the higher socio-economic scale are some of the most dedicated, educated, and intelligent people that I know.
Definitely a socio-economic thing.
Just like it is here in America, you go to poor areas there are less educated people and younger people having babies.
I don't think it is fair to say an entire group of people race or ethnicity "culture" are uneducated and irresponsible.
Just like it is here in America, you go to poor areas there are less educated people and younger people having babies.
I don't think it is fair to say an entire group of people race or ethnicity "culture" are uneducated and irresponsible.
I completely agree with you Mach. There's not a person of this world of any culture or race that is less capable than any other if given the same opportunities when it most counts.
YES, it is. They do not view education as important like the average American does.
That is definitely not true, education is a must for all of my brothers-- all my family at that. Its not that immigrant parents don't care for their childrens education. They really aren't there most of time to worry about how their children are doing at school. They say, "Oh stay in school and get a good job" but that is virtually non existent. I know my mother when she lived in Mexico was not allowed to go to college-- only the males could but most chose not to. One of my uncles is actually a Chemical Engineer from Mexico. Trust me, this is really an issue of recent immigrant families. This education issue is not evident for the most part in 1st or 2nd generation families. As for the pregnancy issue I don't know why it happens, I just hear a lot about it.
I think it's a teen culture thing and maybe even moreso a poverty thing. At my high school, it was generally the white girls in the trailer parks who got pregnant- some at remarkably young ages. A lot of this had to do with lack of education and lack of guidance. My school system did a great job making inroads in the Hispanic community and there was a large amount of accountability placed on the students through ESL courses and Hispanic culture after school clubs. Also, my school district was strictly abstinence only but the middle school ESL class had teachers who taught safe sex procedures (maybe because of the national trend?) which I think had a lot to do with it. Had they not had the safety net, would they have fallen through the cracks of the poverty they lived in? If the poor white girls (not a racial statement- there were VERY few people of other races in my community outside of the 95% white statistic and Hispanics) had some kind of similar accountability, maybe they wouldn't have gotten pregnant and dropped out.
Some of the best students in my school (IB and AP scholars) were the children of illegal immigrants and the dropouts of Hispanics matched the dropouts of the general population- all very low. My school didn't publish college attendance rates based on race, but based on my participation in the Hispanic Political Action club every single person I worked with there went to college- many to very good colleges.
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. It is definitely in the culture and major reason why educated latin families want to move to the US.
