While high school is a time for growth, maturity, development and planning for their futures, a percentage of teen girls will sadly have their dreams shattered by the abrupt beginning of adulthood that the majority is not prepared for. The United States has a growing epidemic of teen pregnancy on its hands leading to an influx of further societal issues as they become adults. Could having a mandatory parenting class in high school help lower the growing epidemic in teen pregnancies?
Decisions made during the last four years of a teenager’s life prior to graduating are by far some of the most important and influential in determining their success as adults. Planning for college is an excellent example of being on the right path towards this
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(“10 Things I’ve Learned Being a Teen Mom.”) Ironically, cast members of those shows have said they wish they had waited, not become teen parents, and finished school. Without guidance from a supportive family, proper education and an excellent grasp on what being an uneducated teen parent is really like, many will make a mistake that lasts a lifetime. Having a child is a huge decision for adults with a career, financial resources, parenting skills, and life experience play a huge part their decisions, but impressionable girls at child-bearing ages may make these decisions without being informed on the impact of their lives. The likelihood of an absentee father, financial challenges, emotional stress also impact on their futures. While there is typically one general class taught in middle school regarding sex education, it’s not enough. This issue can be dealt with by implementing a mandatory parenting class or series of sex …show more content…
If young adults were more educated about the possibilities of contracting infections and giving birth to an unhealthy baby, it would change lives. Close to three million teens contract a sexually transmitted disease or infection every year due to having unprotected sex. (“Teen Pregnancy Prevention.”) Having a transmitted disease can lead to giving birth to an HIV/AIDS positive child. Being a parent is a difficult experience for young girls and boys to go through, especially without the proper education and family support. With the knowledge they could learn about conceiving a child, taking care of it, and how it would affect them; teen pregnancies would drop in
In May 2006 the silence cries of Kaylib Neal began to fill the delivery room as young Kizzy Neal slightly tilts her head with the energy she has left to take a glace at her new son. Although this moment is one of the happiest times of Kizzys life, she still wishes she could have waited to experience this moment at a later time in her life. At the age of only thirteen, Kizzy is one among the thousands of teenage girls who become pregnant each year in the United States. According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 34% percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20. Eight in ten of these teen pregnancies are unintended and 79% are to unmarried teens. There are many preliminary causes for such a high In Kizzy’s case, the blame is put on the lack of sexual education within her school. She claims that because she did not received adequate information on this subject, she was unaware of what she was getting herself into. The question is: will the opportunity to experience sex education classes make a difference in preventing teen pregnancy? Sexual education, in a broad sense, is a series of courses taken by adolescents throughout their school years in order gain a better understanding of aspects that pertain to sexual activity. Beginning as early as third grade, the students learn what sex is, what its consequences are and how to prevent those consequences. Being of the main consequences of engaging in sexual activity, Teen Pregnancy is commonly spoken about within these classes. Given that teens are being informed of this consequences within accurate sex ed. Classes, providing comprehensive classes in a school environment does not cause an increase in teen pregnancy.
Teen pregnancy is surprisingly decreasing over the years. According to Farber, “the most recent studies have shown that there has been a decrease in the rate of pregnancies among all teenagers and among sexually active teenagers (16). Although this issue seems is decreasing this is still a problem faced by many teenage girls today. Each year, 7.5 percent of all 15-19 year old women become pregnant (Maynard 1). Not only does this issue affects the pregnant teen but it also affects the economy. Teen pregnancy affects graduation rates. Many teen mothers cite pregnancy as the key reason of them not finishing school. Only 40 percent of teen mothers finish high school (Teen Pregnancy Affects Graduation Rates). The 60 percent of teen mothers that do not finish high school not only influence their future, but the future of their unborn baby. The best solution to help teen pregnancy become obsolete and save many teenagers futures is abstinence. Abstinence is the best solution because this solution has four advantages such as, it has the highest effectiveness, it teaches other important life skills, it aids teens in school and it halts the spread of STDs among adolescents.
Technology, cell phones, and social media are partially to blame; destroying our communication skills, but parents are still responsible for their children’s knowledge. With lack of communication between parent and child, children are going into relationships, or what they think are relationships without knowing as much as they should about intimacy. One solution to teen pregnancy is better communication to children, especially teens about sex, and the risks that come with it. Giving teens more information on STD’s would also help the situation. If teens knew more about the risks of disease due to sex, they would be less likely to take part in such actions, therefore reducing pregnancy in the teen age frame. If teen girls knew more about the risk of pregnancy, they would be more attentive to situations they are getting into with boys. Girls understand that pregnancy is a long process. What girls don’t understand, is the risk of pregnancy caused by sex, and how strenuous and difficult a pregnancy can be. If girls (and boys) were more educated on the risks that are tied to sex, there would be less sexual activity in teens; therefore, there would be a decrease in teen
Teen pregnancy is a big deal. We have seen our numbers of teen’s pregnant drop since 1991 but it is still a high number. Our numbers of teen pregnancy at times have been greater in number than other countries. We see teen pregnancy amongst people in all races, black, white, and Hispanic. Our babies are having babies. Teens are often not careful and have unprotected sex. They think they are mature enough to have sexual relations but in the end our mature enough to care for the consequences of having sex. “Low levels of parental education and income sharply increase the likelihood that a young women will become sexually active and have an unplanned child” (Macionis, 2015). That statement of research is very powerful, but not as powerful as this one, “Compared to young women who lives with both biological parents, those who live with a mother and a stepfather or in some other family arrangements have triple the odds of having a child by age nineteen” (Macionis, 2015). There are ways to prevent teen pregnancy from educating our children about ways of prevention, statistics/research, and simply just being involved with our children.
How many girls have you see around school who are pregnant? Do you ever come to think that they may not have had the “sex talk” with their parents or any sort of sex education at school? “The United Stated still has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized country. About 40 percent of American women become pregnant before the age of 20. The result is about 1 million pregnancies each year among women ages 15 to 19.” (The Annie E. Casey Foundation) At the age 15-20 most teen males and females don’t have a stable job and are still going to school. There is much at risk when a male and female decide to have sexual intercourse. Having a sex education class would help decrease the teen pregnancy rate. Learning what one can do to prevent a teen pregnancy and the consequences that can lead up to it, will help reduce the amount of sexual activity among teens. Having a sex education class that is required will benefit the upcoming teens of the next generation. Some parents don’t want their teens to have premarital sex and some parents don’t want the schools to be the ones responsible to teach their kids about sex education because they feel like it’s their job. There has been much controversy on sex education being taught at school.
In the United States today, many teenage girls are facing lots of problems. New problems are rising such as an increased pregnancy rate among teenagers. Our teenage girls are less developed and unprepared for the problems which come along with their decision to have sex. It is also too early for teenage girls to become pregnant. Many teens think having a baby is some sort of joke. They believe it will never happen to them but the reality is that every time teens have sex, there is a possibility that the sperm will find its way to the egg if they do not get protection. As a nation, or society, it is in our common interest to protect our teenage girls from getting unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. However, this issue of protecting or preventing our teenage girls from pregnancy plays a dynamic role and is a matter of choice. Many parents and educators have long argued over whether teens should get a comprehensive sex education or abstinence only education. The question is which of these programs is more effective at stopping teen pregnancy. To prevent teenage pregnancy, the United States, should force schools to teach comprehensive sex education for many reasons. For many people, instructing teenage girls about the usefulness of birth control and condoms is more important than just simply mentioning to avoid sex until marriage. Comprehensive sex education is needed to teach teens about the usefulness of condoms.
Children having children, this is an all too familiar phrase that has become a popular adage among people in today’s society. But as popular as this phrase maybe, it does not even begin to scratch the surface that lies beneath the complex issues of teenage pregnancy. There are many adverse concerns that encompass teen pregnancy, to which society has even developed its own views upon. Concerns that develop from adolescent pregnancy can have negative impacts for teenage parents, children, and even society. According to Furstenberg, “In 1995, in his State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton singled out teenage childbearing as “our most serious social problem”. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (n.d.), “In 2012, there were 29.4 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19, or to simply put it an estimated 305,420 babies were born to females within this age group, which ninety eight percent of these births had taken place outside of wedlock” (See Table 1). Even though there has been a decrease in the number of teen pregnancies over the years, the number in the U.S. still ranks the highest when compared to other developed countries in the world (Deborah, n.d.). Communities everywhere need to come together to develop strategies that focuses on reducing teen pregnancies in the United States.
The birth rate among teens in the United States has declined 9% from 2009 to 2010, a historic low among all racial and ethnic groups, with the least being born in 2010; and in 2011 the number of babies born to adolescents aged 15-19 years of age was 329,797 (“Birth Rates for U.S.”, 2012). Although the decline in unwanted and unplanned teen births is on the rise the United States continues to be among the highest of industrialized countries facing this problem. This is a prevailing social concern because of the health risks to these young mothers as well as their babies. Teens at higher risk of becoming pregnant are raised at or below the poverty level by single parents; live in environments that cause high levels of stress (i.e., divorce, sexual psychological and physical abuse); are influenced by peers or family members that are sexually active; and lack parental guidance that would direct them to be responsible and self-controlled.
Sex is huge, sex is important; everyone cares and has something to say about sex. Sex sells. Sex is an immense part of life for almost everyone in the nation and the world, including youth. Teens hear about sex from their friends, from the shows they watch on television, from the music they listen to, and sometimes, once in a while, they hear about it as discussed by their parents and teachers in an educational context. In a Center For Disease Control (CDC) report from the year 2000, about 65% of 19 year-old teens were currently sexually active, with another 20% unsure if they would chose to be active or not in the near future, and only the remaining 15% choosing to be abstinent from sex at this age. Obviously the majority of teens are engaging in some nature of sexual activity at a relatively early age, and therefore it is important that they learn about the consequences associated with sex and about safe sexual practices, like using protection and being informed about sexual transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy. It was reported by the Alan Guttmacher Institute that approximately 4 in 10 young women in the U.S. become pregnant at least once before turning 20 years old. It was also reported that in the U.S., one in four sexually active teens become infected with an STD every year. With alarming statistics such as these, it is a given that these teens must be well informed before making a decision that could very well alter their lives.
Assume you are a 15 year-old teenage girl, you take school seriously, earn good grades, have a close group of friends that you can count on and want them to be a part of your life forever, and you have recently started dating a boy that you are crazy about. How can your life get any better than it is at this moment? Now, imagine you’re late. Your monthly visitor has not arrived on time this month. Your friend suggests that you take a pregnancy test, so you do. Fear overcomes you as you wait for the answer, then in a second your life has changed forever; You are pregnant! What are you going to do now? Sadly, this scenario is real for many young ladies. Could somebody have said or done something that would have prevented this from happening to you or someone close to you that you know? Your friend, your parents? How about your school? In the movie “Lean on Me”, the character Kaneesha portrays a student that finds herself pregnant. Her high school, Eastside, failed in seizing its opportunity to teach her about “safe” sex, using contraceptives, and to inform her about the realities of being a teenage parent. Now, while many may argue that it is not the school’s responsibility to help students make better decisions, the truth of the matter is that students spend the majority of their time at school leaving a window open for that teacher, administrator, or counselor to get through to them. Mr. Clark, the principal in the movie, sees Kaneesha crying and learns that she is pregnant. He tries to comfort her, but was there something he or anyone else could have done to help prevent her unwanted pregnancy? The answer is yes. Schools can help reduce the number of teenage pregnancies by improving how health classes are taught ...
I believe it is very important for teenagers to be educated about sex and the consequences that could follow. My school has speakers that come in a talk to us about subject once a year, but some schools don’t have any education about this. If kids don’t know how to protect themselves, and don’t know what their options are, then they may end up getting pregnant and possibly having an abortion. If we can get it so every school has at least one time a year where they get taught ab...
One wrong step and some 15 years girl get pregnant. One wrong step and the society will mark you as the anathema. Still the teenage pregnancy is prominent aspect of many different countries in this world Teenage pregnancy means that some female is under age of 20 years when her pregnancy period is just ending. It is a serious issue which cannot be ignored both in developed as well as undeveloped countries. It creates great difficulties for teenage women. More than 50% of women cannot imagine problems which would affect their own lives. The baby born to the teenage mother has risk of the low birth weight risk of the pre-maturity and the risk of anemia along with other health issues to mother and child, mother suffers because of her body is not developed for supporting another life. In most of cases baby develops weakness and laziness that prevails throughout their lives.
Although the rate of teenage pregnancy in the U.S. has declined 22 percent since 1991, it is still happening at an alarming rate. Close to one million girls between the ages of 13-19 get pregnant each year. Some may use the argument that the female reproductive system is at its prime health at around 16 years of age. That fact cannot be refuted, but is that really a good enough reason to encourage adolescents to become parents before they are emotionally and financially ready? Each year the federal government spends close to $40 billion in order to help families that result from teenage pregnancies. (The British Medical Journal) These young mothers are usually living at or below the federal poverty level, and are offered government assistance
Thesis Statement: Within America, there is a teen pregnancy epidemic across all socioeconomic backgrounds, presenting commonalities as to the causes and ramifications of adolescents emerging as a growing parental population.
As time goes on, teen pregnancy is becoming more and more common throughout the world. So many people frown upon this whole idea. Such people act as if the teenage parents’ world is going to come to an end. Although these kids’ life is going to be making a big turn, there are many of them who are mature enough to take on the responsibilities of a baby.