I totally agree that our society should not be glamorizing teenage pregnancy. Actually, we should be encouraging sex out of marriage for anyone or pregnancy outside of marriage. However, one is hard-pressed these days to find anything of a wholesome nature in entertainment. So we might want to start with that.
I taught at TUSD's TeenAge Parent Program for six years in the '90s. The first thing you need to know is that TUSD high school counselors did not send the "good" students to TAPP; they only sent the "non-students" there to get them off their rolls. We did get a few students (both male and female) who already knew how to be students, but they were few and far between.
For those years, the staff worked hard to fill in the educational gaps for those students who were highly at-risk even before they came to us. Add to that the care we took in giving these young parents the opportunity to learn how to be good parents. For the most part, we were successful.
AZ should be ashamed of the teen-pregnancy rate which is now 3rd highest in the nation. But shunning these young parents and their children is not the answer. Education is the answer--on all fronts. I know that TAPP does a great job in this area.
While I was there only one of the former babies came back as a parent/student, and even then it turned out he wasn't the father of the baby. So you see, TAPP is not only educating the young parents academically, but those young parents figure out a way to keep this happening for their children. I call that success!
Finally, do some research on the ages of the fathers of babies born to teen mothers. You will find a disgusting trend. The mothers' ages can range any where from 11 to 19, while the fathers' ages range from 14 to 51.* Men are raping little girls. So think again with you want to place blame on the young girls who are carrying the babies of grown men. You want the girls locked out of society? Well then you'd better do the same for the men who are preditors!
Recent Comments
I taught at TUSD's TeenAge Parent Program for six years in the '90s. The first thing you need to know is that TUSD high school counselors did not send the "good" students to TAPP; they only sent the "non-students" there to get them off their rolls. We did get a few students (both male and female) who already knew how to be students, but they were few and far between.
For those years, the staff worked hard to fill in the educational gaps for those students who were highly at-risk even before they came to us. Add to that the care we took in giving these young parents the opportunity to learn how to be good parents. For the most part, we were successful.
AZ should be ashamed of the teen-pregnancy rate which is now 3rd highest in the nation. But shunning these young parents and their children is not the answer. Education is the answer--on all fronts. I know that TAPP does a great job in this area.
While I was there only one of the former babies came back as a parent/student, and even then it turned out he wasn't the father of the baby. So you see, TAPP is not only educating the young parents academically, but those young parents figure out a way to keep this happening for their children. I call that success!
Finally, do some research on the ages of the fathers of babies born to teen mothers. You will find a disgusting trend. The mothers' ages can range any where from 11 to 19, while the fathers' ages range from 14 to 51.* Men are raping little girls. So think again with you want to place blame on the young girls who are carrying the babies of grown men. You want the girls locked out of society? Well then you'd better do the same for the men who are preditors!
*Figures taken from a NC study in 1995. http://www.epi.state.nc.us/SCHS/pdf/sb-7.p…