By Bridget Brady
Cranbourne Secondary College students Michelle and Jessikah with their baby dolls Maxine and Frank. The students care for the dolls as part of the Baby, Think It Over program. 33651 Picture: Luke Plummer
CRANBOURNE Secondary College students are getting a taste of parental life as they care for dolls that behave like babies.
The year 11 Health and Human Development students are each required to care for a doll for 24 hours as part of the Baby, Think It Over program.
Like real parents, the students have their hands full as the dolls cry and need to have their nappies changed at all hours of the night.
There is no option for cheating, either, as their results show up in a report the teacher receives and an attached sensor means the student is the only one that can care for the doll.
Teacher Clare Hempel said the program proved to students how much work a baby could be.
“A lot of students who normally have after-school activities have to change their plans,” Ms Hempel said.
“A lot of comments are that ‘babies are definitely a few years off for me’.”
Ms Hempel said the reports also identified the number of times the students let the babies’ heads drop.
“They strive to get 100 per cent.”
The program is widely used in schools and started at Cranbourne Secondary College about six years ago, Ms Hempel said.
