“At the same time, more women are remaining childless, either by choice or circumstance. Twenty percent of women in their 40s do not have children, Mr. Furstenberg said, pointing out that ‘not having children would have been considered bizarre or tragic in the ’50s; now it’s a lifestyle choice” (Cohen, 2010, p. 2) from “The Long Road to Adulthood is Growing Even Longer.”

I think schools promote traditional and generic “life tracks” simply because their students are so insanely diverse that it is easier to simplify life into a “one size fits all” package. This is reflected in teachers’ formal and informal curricula. In our formal curricula, teachers guide students through books that reinforce traditional ideas of heterosexual marriages, nuclear families, and women as mothers and primary caregivers. Word problems in math may include stereotypical situations that present men calculating business investments, girls finding the price of a clothing item with a “20% off sale,” or young men calculating the tip on the bill for their dinner date with a young lady. In our informal curricula, teachers may skirt around difficult topics present in literature, such as homosexuality, divorce, girls and women who choose to not have children, domestic abuse, substance abuse, etc. 

Through these often inadvertent messages, students pick up ideas that there is only one “right” track to life. Thus, students may feel pressure to follow that track even if it is not for them, or they may negatively judge or pressure their peers who stray from the path. In the present context, this can lead to bullying toward homosexual students or students of homosexual parents. In the future when these students are adults, it could lead them to get married before they are emotionally ready, have children whether or not they want to, or chastise others who choose alternative lifestyles. For example, the article said, “[Ms. Tisdel’s] grandparents thought she was a ‘lesbian spinster’ for waiting so long, [ . . . ] while her New York friends think she is too young to be marrying” (Cohen, 2010, p. 3).

Teachers need to create diverse curricula that presents a variety of lifestyles and encourages students to “write” their own lives. Students must leave school with self-awareness and the courage to pursue what feels authentic and right to themselves, and not simply what society “expects” of them. As exemplified by Tisdel’s situation, people have different notions about what is “right,” so ultimately, adults (the future version of today’s students) should pursue what is right for them.