Smiles And Giggles By: Miguel Rodriguez

Smiles and giggles, whining and frowns, tons of activities for babies all around. The T-High Day Care Center: a place where your kid could be a kid. Tennyson is one of the few schools that have a free day care program. It has been around for more than 30 years, and teenage mothers seem to regard it with gratitude.

The infant center is a big help to teenage mothers here at Tennyson. The free day care program allows them to go to school, get their education and have their kid close by. This program also saves them a lot of money. Herniesha Buttler, a junior here at Tennyson, couldn’t agree more. She seems to be very grateful to be attending a school where she can have her baby watched for free and learn at the same time. “I think the day care program is a good idea because there are a lot of people who have kids and they don’t have anybody to watch them while they go to school,” said Herniesha.

The infant center presents itself as a very good program. Mothers seem to really like it as well as their kids. “When my baby is sick or something and can’t come, he starts crying, but when he’s here, he looks happy,” added Herniesha.

The day care center is divided into two sections, one for infants, and the other for toddlers. “There are many activities that take place here for these babies,” said Ms. Lewakowski, a teacher at the infant center. “For the infants we talk with them, introduce them to new toys, and play with them. With the toddlers, we do other types of activities like have them play with blocks, finger paint, and sing with them. We also do a little bit more active things with them like taking them outside for walks and letting them play on the playground,” she added.

Unfortunately, not many high schools have a free day care program and because of that, many teen moms struggle and cannot get their education because they cannot afford to pay anybody to watch their kid. Since Tennyson is one of the only schools to have a mommy program, Sophomore Gabriela Mendoza had to leave her last school, Hayward High, to come here. “If it wasn’t for the free day care program, I wouldn’t have came to this school because most of my friends are at my other school,” she said. Gabriela emphasizes on how this free day care program has not only helped her but her close ones as well. “This program has not helped me but my boyfriend since he’s the one that pays for everything. If he were to pay for day care then that would limit us on a lot of things, because day care is very expensive. Plus, if I was to go to another day care I wouldn’t be able to see her for eight hours, and that would just drive me crazy,” said Gabriela.

The Tennyson Day Care Center holds about 14 babies a year. Usually the day goes by smoothly here, but there are times when it does get a little stressful. “It gets stressful during the beginning of the school year because the babies don’t know us and new babies tend to cry a lot because they’re not used to us. It’s sort of the same thing after long breaks because the babies forget us,” said Ms. Lewakowski.

The purpose of the Day care center is for teen moms to be able to graduate and Tennyson seems to be very fortunate to have such a program that allows for that to happen.