Call in the Infanty

Call+in+the+Infanty

 

Every year, senior AVID classes at Cesar Chavez High School receive an assignment towards the end of the school year called the Baby Project. The Baby Project is an assignment where senior AVID students make a fake baby out of a five pound bag of flour and take care of it 24/7 for a whole week as if it were a real, live baby. In addition to carrying their baby around, they must also document how they take care of their baby at school and at home on a daily baby log and research how much it costs to have and care for a real baby.

This year, the Baby Project for Mr. Cox’s senior AVID class began on Friday, April 21st
and ended on Friday, April 28th. In class on the Friday the project was introduced, students were given a packet with rules for the assignment, baby log pages, and a section to record their research for the cost of caring for a baby. After understanding what the requirements and goals were for the assignment, students then chose a small slip from a box to find out whether they had a boy or a girl and if their baby had any special qualities (i.e: being born premature or disabled).

What was the point of this project? Mr. Cox, the teacher of the senior AVID class, stated that the students were expected to gain a basic understanding of what it takes to care for a child. I asked him in what ways did he see this project challenge his students and he said, “I saw students having to figure out how to work with a child, how to plan their schedule around this kid, and see how difficult it can be to go to school and raise a kid.”

Estefania Cabrera, Alexis Ortiz, and Kayliana Da are all AVID seniors who participated in this project. I asked them what were some of the challenges they faced during this project. Estefania and Alexis both said that because their babies were so realistic, they got a lot of weird and judgmental looks from people. Kayliana said a challenge of hers was “trying to keep everything I needed for my classes and my child organized.” All three of the girls said that some of the things they learned from this project were responsibility, patience, and how hard it must be to be a teen parent. Despite having a similar experience with this project, they all have different opinions on it. Estefania said, “I had fun and enjoyed the snacks I brought for my baby. I think it’s a good project.” Alexis said, “I thought it was pretty fun at first. Also, it really taught me how to be more responsible and what it must be like to have a child at such a young age.” And lastly, Kayliana said, “Although this project was difficult, I still enjoyed it… somewhat. “ Overall, though the AVID students struggled with balancing school, work, and taking care of a baby, they still had fun and learned a lot from it.