Letters to the Editor
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Leave
A decent policy shouldn't focus on punishing recent mothers. When I returned home from the hospital with my first child (47.9 hours after birth) I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without being exhausted. I didn't catch up on the sleep I missed during labor (30 hours) for about a week.
Further, while I had babysat as a teen and prepared and planned for my baby, the reality of a tiny, helpless infant and sleepless nights was hard to adjust to. It took me about a month.
All that is acheived by making girls go back to school is to interrupt their bonding with their baby, prevent the establishment of breastfeeding, and tire the girl. No leaning will happen and any test the girl is given will be a disaster.
Add to that the fact that the most motivated and successful teens are not as likely to get pregnant, and you get a recipe for dropping out. Try earning a living without a high school diploma.
Pregnancy, birth, and newborn care place a lot of demands on a woman and her body (even if Mom is doing most of the work). A month off is just acknowledging biology.
Anything else is mean-spirited punishment at the expense of the future of a vulnerable mother and child.
Had you sat me in a chair in a high school, I would have absorbed nothing.