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Imagine your daughter and her seven friends came over and you knew that one of them would definitely be pregnant. If your daughter went to Robeson High School in Chicago, this would be the case: of 800 girls, 115 of them are pregnant or have had a child. The one in seven rate is astounding, and there are hundreds of factors that may contribute to the school's pregnancy numbers.
These factors include a lack of access to sexual health education and pregnancy prevention and a lack of access to reproductive health resources. The school's students are largely from poor communities of color where teenage pregnancies can be high. The Principal of Robeson adds that absentee fathers may also be a factor.
At least Robeson is a school in which young women are not being thrown out or transferred to other schools. Principal Morrow notes, "We're looking at how we can get them to the next phase, how can we still get them thinking about graduation?"
So often we may be quick to blame or judge the pregnant girls in the situation, their parents, or other individuals. But Robeson's numbers are a product of a much larger institutional problem - poor reproductive health education in low-income communities. Educational classes and centers need to be set up that normalize and encourage the use of birth control methods and distribute condoms. A teen health center is being built across the street, which is a step in the right direction. But funding needs to be poured into the creation and maintenance of centers such as these so that teenage pregnancy rates go down. The health of young women of color need to be addressed directly so that they aren't struggling to raise children or give birth while trying to graduate from high school.
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You're totally wrong about the old beautiful art. I agree with you that a lot of art involves the naked human form. But, at the time when much of it was produced, it was considered profane or obscene. That is the reason that most European artists died poor. Our perception of obscene has changed because we stopped letting the Catholic church dictate our society's morality. One of the reasons much of the the great artwork we have today became popular is that the artists were pushing on the boundaries of their time.
October 30, 2009 - 6:51amI also agree that our art has devolved into depravity on many fronts. We have relaxed our morals enough that in order to shock, an artist has to go a lot farther to get a response.
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Look before you leap. Your (previous) comment about Madonna's effect on culture was and remains published. You probably just had to wait for it to get thru moderation (or a host of technical issues).
October 25, 2009 - 6:37pmThis Comment
Someone in the 80's (Madonna) told all the nation's teenaged girls that they were supposed to have underaged unprotected sex (and sleep with entire basketball teams, which just HAPPENED to be the Chicago Bulls). Britney listened to her. So did a whole lot of other uneducated people. Most of those uneducated people went on to parent the current bunch of 1-out-of-8 uneducated people causing the uproar. Looks like things are turning out just like people tried to say would happen in the 80's when Madonna was let loose upon our impressionable youth of that generation. And now all you people are trying to figure out 'why'. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Free Speech was never meant to protect liars or their lies. This article exemplifies exactly how things turn out when people DO lie and spread their garbage in the name of the 'free speech'.
October 24, 2009 - 2:02pmThis Comment
Mandatory abortions for anyone without a high school education or a GED.
October 24, 2009 - 12:34amThis Comment
Thats terrible, your have no value for human life. Your probaly in higschool yourself, abortion ISNT birth control.
~Married teen mommy of a beautiful girl, with a wonderful husband.
October 24, 2009 - 7:41amThis Comment
This is going to sound terribly harsh.
October 23, 2009 - 10:46pmBut in this day and age, no matter the amount of sexual education, there is NOT an excuse to "accidentally" have a baby. There are vast resources to prevent pregnancy. I feel bad for those girls who have children with no father present. But this is ridiculous. We aren't in the Dark Ages any more.
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"There are vast resources to prevent pregnancy." The problem is these resources aren't being shown or taught to many teenage women, and though the resources are vast, the access is astoundingly low for a "first-world" country. On top of this, if I have to get accosted outside of a clinic for getting Plan-B, or have operations that front as a clinic and then teach abstinence-only education and leading your way back to god, then those vast resources aren't making their way to the women who need them. There needs to be great consideration toward thinking about the underlying societal problems that trigger higher teen pregnancy in urban communities of color and not just reprimanding women to "close their legs" and telling men to "keep it in their pants."
December 28, 2009 - 10:47amThis Comment
ummm some parents seem to be to embarrased to educated their own children sometimes it takes losing the virginity to falling preggers straight after for them to learn its called a condom and the pill take it.
October 23, 2009 - 4:46pmThis Comment
Im a married teen mom, and i find you comments insulting! Its not a race issue, im white, so is my husband! We have alot of colored friends where both parents are involved!
October 23, 2009 - 2:19pmDoesnt matter if your white or black!
Ive been married a year, with a child for 6 months, im not stupid!!
Not all teen parents are stupid!!!!
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I was a teen mother too, but you and I are different from most other teens hun. We at least take responsibility and KNOW and WANTED what we were handed, we UNDERSTOOD what was going to happen etc. Color doesn't matter, I totally agree. But unfortunately there are teens out there that even KNOWING what could happen, do it regaurdless and that is careless and iresponsable on their part.
October 23, 2009 - 8:01pmThis Comment