Sara Lawrence (born 1985) was the representative for Jamaica in the Miss World 2006 beauty pageant. In March 2007, she relinquished the Miss Jamaica World title upon announcing her pregnancy, becoming the first winner in the Jamaican contest's 23-year-history to do so.
Lawrence was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where she majored in biology with an emphasis on pre-medicine; according to her contestant biography, her career ambition is to become a doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynaecology.
After winning the Jamaican title in August 2006, Lawrence placed in the first six at the Miss World competition held in Warsaw, Poland, where she was also named Miss World Caribbean.
Upon relinquishing her crown in March 2007, Lawrence said in a statement that she had "taken a deeply personal decision to face up to my responsibilities as one who expects to become a mother later this year. I believe with all that is within me that it is my moral obligation to do what I believe to be ethically correct and follow what I believe in my heart to be right."
The pageant's entry rules dictate that contestants must not have given birth to a child prior to the competition, and the winner "must be prepared to be a positive role model for the youth of Jamaica." Mickey Haughton-James, a pageant official, said that "Lawrence's actions could potentially harm the tradition that is the Miss Jamaica World pageant and its past and future winners."
Lawrence, however, received overwhelming support from the Jamaican public for her decision to have her baby. She received the backing of the Miss World Organization and was allowed to retain both her crowns for the full duration of the reign.
Famous quotes by sara lawrence:
“Even though fathers, grandparents, siblings, memories of ancestors are important agents of socialization, our society focuses on the attributes and characteristics of mothers and teachers and gives them the ultimate responsibility for the child’s life chances.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“Dissonance between family and school, therefore, is not only inevitable in a changing society; it also helps to make children more malleable and responsive to a changing world. By the same token, one could say that absolute homogeneity between family and school would reflect a static, authoritarian society and discourage creative, adaptive development in children.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“For those parents from lower-class and minority communities ... [who] have had minimal experience in negotiating dominant, external institutions or have had negative and hostile contact with social service agencies, their initial approaches to the school are often overwhelming and difficult. Not only does the school feel like an alien environment with incomprehensible norms and structures, but the families often do not feel entitled to make demands or force disagreements.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“Productive collaborations between family and school, therefore, will demand that parents and teachers recognize the critical importance of each other’s participation in the life of the child. This mutuality of knowledge, understanding, and empathy comes not only with a recognition of the child as the central purpose for the collaboration but also with a recognition of the need to maintain roles and relationships with children that are comprehensive, dynamic, and differentiated.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)