Recently, I have had the pleasure of tutoring teenage mothers in my local community. These young moms range in age from 14 – 17 years old, and have children ranging in age from 10 months old to two months old. These girls come from a low-income area of the San Gabriel Valley and are in a special degree completion program at their school. The tutoring I provide is to supplement their current curriculum and involves preparation for their High School Exit Exam, enabling them to graduate with their High School Diploma.
My passion is to connect with these young women, to provide further training in English, Reading Comprehension, and Writing Skills, and to encourage them in their continued education beyond High School. Like a lighthouse serves as a beacon of hope for land to weary sea-farers, so I would want to be a beacon of light to these girls as they traverse their own shores of personal drama. Many of these girls come from low-income, low-education households that do not provide a challenging academic atmosphere for their children. The struggle in these households is for daily survival…there is no room for dreams to thrive in this present condition. My goal is to see their talent, their giftedness, and to empower them to develop that talent…to look beyond their current circumstances to the promising future that could be awaiting them and their children. Their potential is truly unlimited and their beauty is undeniable.
With this gift of being present with these wonderful ladies, however, comes the painstaking reality that some of these students may not desire real change in their lives. I am reminded in John 5:1-17 of Christ's conversation with the lame beggar in Bethesda. This beggar had been near, not in, the healing waters of Bethesda for 38 years. Before Christ healed him of his illness, He asked him the important question, "Do you wish to get well?" (v.6). The man answered that he did want to get well, but that he did not have anyone to help me into the pool. After this, Jesus healed him and the man went away rejoicing. These young girls are surrounded by family members who have never received a formal education, who have worked menial jobs all of their lives, and whose primary cultural value is creating families, regardless of age, job status, etc. Many of their siblings have children out of wedlock and all of them live communally, relying on their parents to support their way of life. We also have government and state programs that provide them with food and medical care for themselves and their children that, while much needed, also creates a learned helplessness in which it is much easier to rely on government assistance than to create one's independent way in the world.
How much of a difference can I really make? I know, in reality, that most of these girls are undocumented and have no other way of life than what they know right now. It is much easier to get pregnant, have another child, and subsist of welfare, than it is to study hard, work hard, and become a fully-functioning, contributing member of society. Even if they receive a college education, they would need to become a citizen to receive a decent paying job and have a professional career. Do these girls REALLY want to get well? If they do, it involves a long, hard road of work, discipline, accountability, and community support.
One of my students wrote "becuz ur kewl" on a formal essay assignment, when answering the topic of naming the most influential person in her life and why. While the sentiment is heart-felt and endearing, will she learn to write properly and present herself to the world as an intelligent, respectable woman and mother? Only time will tell. In the meantime, I get out of bed every morning, and hope that my encouragement will inspire these girls and that my life will, in some small way, reflect what it means to be a decent member of society and a woman of God.
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