Does that child have paternal role models?
Absentee fathers, teenage mothers, over-stressed grandmothers limit the roles that the child can experience over the growing years. These are basic conditions for a stressful environment for young children. This does not mean that every child from a deficient environment follows this path. Many escape because of the particular combination of circumstances which provide the ability to substitute positive stimulation to master stress. In the final analysis, there are those who overcome and those who succumb to stress. SUCCESSES AND FAILURES Let us look at the number of successes and failures. After deducting for infant mortality, some 58,000 births occurred in the birth year, 1989, when today’s 16-year-old age group was born. A record of what happened to those 58,000 as they proceeded to age 16 when they would graduate from secondary schools, is instructive. A great many dropped out of school or did not attend any secondary educational institution. They went to post-primary all-age schoo
