>SNIP
>
>>More to the point, we also have to make sure kids see options in front of them. If you live in a neighborhood where practically every girl has her first baby before she gets to high school, and everyone is poor, and few families include fathers, how are you going to believe that you have hope for anything else? How are you going to believe that anything else even exists?
>
>This is no longer restricted to certain neighborhoods. It's becoming much more than the exception. Maybe not all, but a large number of girls have babies in school and fewer and fewer families have two parents. Did you read or hear of the recent studies conducted in middle and highschools?

I haven't seen the studies you mention (but I'm sure you'll find some links <g>). I do think there's a difference between living in a neighborhood where this is everyone's reality, and living in a neighborhood where some have these issues and others don't. It's hard to believe in something you've never seen.

Tamar