Hi Mary,
I think it is great that you daughter wants to do a paper on this (isn't
it rewarding when our kids show us that they *get* it!) I wanted to
share with everyone something that happened to my 15 yr. old last
spring.

In my daughter's freshman advanced English class they, too, had to do a
controversial/persuasive paper. She came to me and asked about doing it
on breastfeeding vs. formula feeding. (This was the first time my
daughter as a teen has ever shown a large interest in the topic so I was
thrilled). I helped her find Marsha Walker's book on selling out babies,
connected her with lactation professionals, someone well-connected with
WHO, etc.

She wrote a well thought out paper. I thought it was good, but I'm her
mother. At the time a well-known maternity professional was in town (who
I have a relationship with) to present a lecture and I asked her to read
the paper. She told me that it summed up what many people can't seem to
grasp and she was amazed that a 15 yr. old had written it. My daughter
turned it in with pride.

On the last day of school she received her grade......a "D". I kid you
not!
I could not believe it. My daughter was a mess. I left a voice mail
message for the teacher but found myself losing control so in the best
interest of our daughter, my husband became the go-to person (he is a
teacher, too).

To make a horrible, long story short, my daughter received the D because
the teacher felt she had cheated---plagarism. When I ran the entire
contents of the paper through a website that checks to see if a paper is
plagarized, it came back with 9 hits---all direct quotes (accredited)
from the WHO Code. Everything else was my daughter's.

When the teacher was confronted with this proof, she admitted to my
husband that : 1...she truly thought my daughter had cheated and 2...she
herself had not breastfed and she had issues with making women feel
guilty for formula feeding.  My daughter was present at this meeting and
learned first-hand how this teacher's thought process worked.

Needless to say, my daughter's grade was raised and we followed the
system's rules regarding the behavior of this teacher. I have to admit,
it did not occur to me that my daughter would take a full body blow on
this. However, she has emerged from it stronger. She says she now
understands that to be an activist for something you truly believe in
means that you may be attacked by others. And that you must be willing
to stick your neck out anyway. She's proud of the paper she wrote. And I
am proud of her.

I don't share this to discourage anyone from writing this type of
paper---in fact I believe that it's essential that they be written! My
daughter had to present the paper to her class, along with her
arguments. There are now 20 teens in my town who told her afterwards
that they had never realized how important it was to breastfeed and that
they were amazed that the formula companies were using such underhanded
tactics. That is the true gift of her paper..

Just wanted to share.
Ann Grauer, LCCE, CD(DONA), PCD(DONA)

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