It’s not a big story, certainly not one to hit the international pages of newspapers around the world. But it is a bit of a good news story, worthy of comment at a time when the prime preoccupation of the media seems to be with gloom and doom.
Jade Norman, a 22-year-old Englishwoman and a mother of two, has just completed her first year as an undergraduate in history at Lucy Cavendish College (LCC) at Cambridge University. She is not famous, nor has she done anything spectacular in her first year as a university student. True, she is a little older than the average and has two children, but then again, there are any number of women who have fairly successfully balanced motherhood with studies and careers.
So why, you ask, do we feel compelled to comment on Ms Norman’s circumstances? Well, consider this. Ms Norman is a high school dropout who first got pregnant at 15. Her daughter and son, the products of a mixed race relationship – she is white, her children’s father is black – are now 6 and 3 respectively. Ms Norman’s own parents divorced when she was 3 and she was brought up in a working class environment, living first with her mother, then with her father and subsequently with her grandparents. Then she got pregnant.
However, rather than opting for an abortion, Ms Norman chose to have her baby and then she chose to bring it up herself instead of putting it up for adoption. So, she dropped out of school and lived almost penniless in a hostel for homeless mothers and babies, dependent on state benefits.
That she has been able to overcome several challenges to pursue an education is what makes Ms Norman’s story remarkable and almost inspirational.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Ms Norman was determined throughout this daunting phase of her life to get to university and “build herself a better life.” Eventually, she returned to school and succeeded in obtaining three A grades at A level. She then applied to university and, to her astonishment, was invited by LCC for an interview.
LCC is a small, all-female college, which admits only postgraduates and older undergraduates, or “mature students” as they are called. The admissions officers must have been impressed by Ms Norman’s intelligence, determination to overcome adversity, courage and ambition to make something of her life through education, whilst at the same time holding on to her family. Thus, they offered her a place.
Now, not many teenage mothers are offered a second chance to put things right in their lives. As Ms Norman puts it, “There is a stereotypical view of young single parents, that they just want to sit around at home all day, happy to live on benefits.” This stereotype is not confined to the UK. Unfortunately, the enlightened view of the LCC admissions officers is not always the norm, even in liberal democracies in the West where there are still all sorts of stigma attached to underage sex and teenage pregnancy. Indeed, teenage pregnancy in the UK is a serious social problem, often associated with the working class and a lack of education. In our part of the world, in our more conservative societies, the prejudices are probably much worse.
Ms Norman has this to say of such blinkered thinking: “That image is really wrong. I know lots of young single parents and I don’t know one that doesn’t want to do something better… everyone has problems in their life. But, despite the ups and downs, you have to know things will always get better in the end.”
Ms Norman has clearly overcome barriers and prejudices associated with gender, a broken home, sexual mores, class and race, to achieve something worthwhile. Some may well believe that just choosing to have her children and bring them up is a massive achievement in itself. And while we do not wish to appear to be condoning or promoting underage sex and teenage pregnancy, we would like to highlight Jade Norman’s bravery and determination to do the right thing for herself and her children, by never losing sight, in the face of adversity, of the value of education. And, we should add, her children’s father is still with her.
People really should not be marked for life by their youthful indiscretions. Everyone is entitled to a second chance. It helps, of course, if one is prepared to work hard to make it happen.
