My name is Zelda Ford, I am a 17 year old African American female living in Anson CO. Today I was asked what is it like living here in Anson County now compared to how it used to be.
Anson County is a nice place to come to if you have recently retired because of the beautiful country lands. Anson County has acres and acres of trees and open fields for farming or just building a home on. On the other hand I would not recommend you bringing your children here to gain an education. The school system is not what it use to be and education is not the main key anymore. The teachers and principles are mainly concerned about the uniforms instead of rather or not the child is learning the material needed to further their education. Anson County has some positive aspects to it such as the different high schools that kids in grades 9th-12th can choose from other than the traditional high school. You can choose from Anson Early College which is a high school where while taking high school courses you can also take college courses and gain your associates degree. The only catch to this school is that you won’t graduate with your class because you have to go an extra year in order to obtain your degree. Another alternative school is Anson New Technology High School, this is actually the school that I attend. This school is a great school also because the teachers here actually care if you succeed or not, they want everyone to be successful. At this school you can also take college courses and can actually graduate with your right class and go to college as a junior if you take a lot of college courses. If I was a uprising 9th grader I would choose one of these school because there you can actually learn. The traditional high school is not a place I would consider because out there the teachers and students have their priorities mixed up. Students would rather fight and clown around than learn and the teachers would rather let those who want to learn stay in class and those that try but get off task send them home. I feel like if the teacher showed every student that they care instead of showing favoritism then the traditional high school would be a better learning environment.
Anson County also has a high teen pregnancy rate, in 2007 there were 77 out of 1000 girls pregnant at the ages of 15-19 and 43.6 were white and 125.2 were black. Is this what you want for your children? Something need to be done before its too late. I love my hometown but it has some negative aspects to it also. I am glad that my family taught me well enough to the point where I didn’t have to become another statistic in the County. When I walk on the campus of the high school and see so many young pregnant bellies I just shake my head and thank god I was taught better. I really don’t understand what these girls go through but by me being friends with a pregnant teen I’ve heard about some of what they go through. I was talking with my friend one day and she got on the subject of how she didn’t know how she would provide for her baby seeing that the father wasn’t around. I looked up at her and said “rather or not the father is in the baby’s life you will still be able to provide with the help of your family.” One good thing that Anson County has is that the Partnership for Children has a teen mom program that allows the young mothers to be able to provide daycare, and necessities for their child. This program was designed to help the mothers to be able to provide for their children as well as continue to go to school and maintain good grades. The main thing about this program is that in order to stay in the program you must stay in school and maintain a “C” average and you also can not have another baby. If you don’t meet these stipulations you will no longer get the help or support of the teen mom program. I love my county but there are just somethings that need to change and I pray that one day another teen girl will write about how Anson County is now and have more positive things to say.
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