Comprehensive education
Sunday January 08, 2006; part of: Blather

The scene: a class of fifteen year olds being taught "personal and social development", in a largely middle class comprehensive school. The teacher presents them with an ethical dilemma, from her pack of materials.

Teacher: Annie is pregnant

Children: Whoo! Yes! We knew that already!

Teacher: She is seventeen

Children: No she’s not. She’s fifteen

Teacher: The father is also seventeen. He has promised to stand by her whatever she does.

Children: No he’s not. It could be any one of four blokes and no one knows who.

Teacher ploughs on with the material, wishing she’d had the wit to change the name.

Googling for backup material I discovered that Annie finds pregnancy very hard to avoid. The Enlgish version of this material doesn't seem to be online -- in this, Annie is thoughtful mature, supported by her family and so on.

Elsewhere, things are grimmer. In Forida, she ran away from home when she was fifteen and supported herself by prostitution until her father was safely jailed.

In Julie A. Hyzy's Artistic License, Annie is a feisty divorcee swept up in a whirl of murder and intrigue. " Romance and cozy fans will particularly go for this adroitly plotted tale.1 "

Meanwhile, in a Doctor Who adventure, Bernice discovers that Annie is pregnant, but it all ends happily when Bernice prevents Williams from killing himself and the Doctor changes the nature of the universe so the Scourge can no longer hurt them.

In Fredericksburg, Virginia, the news of Annie's pregnancy leads to an abortion, but that's all right because she was only carrying eight puppies.

1 Publishers' Weekly.

Posted by andrewb at January 08, 2006 08:54 AM
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