Now it's being contested that there was no actual pregnancy pact in the Massachusetts high school. See this article from the Boston Herald http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view/2008_06_25_Preg_pact_story_unravels/srvc=home&position=0
I find this disturbing on a great many levels. First, the journalist of the original piece is still insisting that she is correct. While I can understand her motivation, I want to ask a question "Are you just trying to maintain your 'journalistic integrity' by refusing to admit you may have misinterpreted an off-hand remark?" One of the benefits and curses of having a very free press is that often remarks that were made for specific individuals in an attempt to be humorous get completely taken out of context and turned into "news" stories. It's like the revenge of the National Enquirer set. Based on the above link and other related stories, it could appear that one of the social workers may have been trying to be funny when she said that the girls all made a pact to get pregnant by the end of the school year.
Second, the backlash, deserved or not, is going to dominate the news and take away from actual news stories that people need to know about. For example, when was the last time that current information about the war on Terror in Afghanistan made the news? Have we caught that Bin Ladin character yet? No? Don't care? Well, that's sad, because that is actual news from a war that affects everyone, not just those of us in the US.
There's a reason that the American news is ridiculed, it's that we have no content in our news. It's just one sensationalistic story after another - such as the continuing coverage of the b-list (or lower) celebrities like Britney or Paris - while some people care about what happens to people who are famous for their meltdowns or what their grandparents did to make money, it is NOT news when they break a fingernail! Interrupting a news broadcast about Afghanistan to show Ms. Hilton going to jail is absurd.
Finally, when there is a retraction due to shoddy journalism, it's buried on the back pages of a newspaper or footnoted at the end of the broadcast. And those two conditions only occur when the "news journalists" ADMIT they may have erred. All too often, the mistakes are just ignored in the hope that they will go away.
It's unfortunate that so many "news" sites, magazines and TV shows seem to run this kind of sensationalized story in an effort to improve hits, ratings or sales. Sensationalizing the news can only reduce the quality of the news source to one step, if that, above the supermarket tabloid.
Regardless of the outcome, it's still painfully obvious that whatever we are teaching our teens about sex and babies, it's horribly flawed. I feel that the basic understanding here must be that teens are going to have sex, REGARDLESS of what we teach them about it. No amount of abstinance pacts, abstinance only sex ed, contraceptive use sex ed in the classroom is going to change that. Scaring them does not seem to work either, just look at the rates of STDs in this county. So what is the solution? Perhaps parents should make the effort to talk to their kids about uncomfortable subjects. Surely talking to them can't do a worse job with sex ed than politically dictated sex ed does. The advantage to having the parents do the talking means that the schools/teachers will no longer have to listen to as much complaining about the lousy job they did preparing a daughter to get pregnant by her hook-up boyfriend.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Decline of North Eastern Civilization
Time is running a story about a pregnancy boom in a Massachusetts high school - http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html
Apparently the gist is that a group of young ladies - most of whom are around 16 years old - made a pact to try to get pregnant before the end of the school year. While I feel that this story would be disturbing to many people, there is a point to be made here. Having this large a group of unwed pregnant teens can only point to the failure of the "abstinence only" sex ed program currently espoused by a certain political party. I find it very hard to look at it any other way. When you don't bother telling the kids anything except "don't do it because I said so" can you honestly have any expectation of them obeying you? I think not.
Children of any age are currently more wily and sophisticated than many of their parents were at the same age. Why? Because they have access to a great deal more information both good and bad at a younger age; they are constantly bombarded with information while seldom having time to burn off the excess energy - at least this is true here in Florida where many schools have canceled recess to add an additional PE class due to state mandates - and they interact with their environment in a completely different way than their parents or even some of their older siblings. Kids need to be given credit by adults for knowing a lot more than they let on.
As for the situation in Massachusetts, the parents are also to blame. There is no excuse for being so uninvolved in your children's lives that they can go out and make a silly pregnancy pact. Parent's need to quit blaming the schools - teachers are often underpaid, under appreciated and yet expected to put up with a ridiculous attitude from parents who won't even consider taking a tax increase to give teachers a raise - and teachers for their own lack of involvement in their kids lives. Be a better parent, take an interest in your child and quit trying to blame all your problems on everyone else because those of us without children are getting tired of watching our tax dollars go to raising your grandkids.
6/21
Check out this story from USA Today Online where no one else seems to know about this alleged pact. http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/06/mass-school-off.html
Apparently the gist is that a group of young ladies - most of whom are around 16 years old - made a pact to try to get pregnant before the end of the school year. While I feel that this story would be disturbing to many people, there is a point to be made here. Having this large a group of unwed pregnant teens can only point to the failure of the "abstinence only" sex ed program currently espoused by a certain political party. I find it very hard to look at it any other way. When you don't bother telling the kids anything except "don't do it because I said so" can you honestly have any expectation of them obeying you? I think not.
Children of any age are currently more wily and sophisticated than many of their parents were at the same age. Why? Because they have access to a great deal more information both good and bad at a younger age; they are constantly bombarded with information while seldom having time to burn off the excess energy - at least this is true here in Florida where many schools have canceled recess to add an additional PE class due to state mandates - and they interact with their environment in a completely different way than their parents or even some of their older siblings. Kids need to be given credit by adults for knowing a lot more than they let on.
As for the situation in Massachusetts, the parents are also to blame. There is no excuse for being so uninvolved in your children's lives that they can go out and make a silly pregnancy pact. Parent's need to quit blaming the schools - teachers are often underpaid, under appreciated and yet expected to put up with a ridiculous attitude from parents who won't even consider taking a tax increase to give teachers a raise - and teachers for their own lack of involvement in their kids lives. Be a better parent, take an interest in your child and quit trying to blame all your problems on everyone else because those of us without children are getting tired of watching our tax dollars go to raising your grandkids.
6/21
Check out this story from USA Today Online where no one else seems to know about this alleged pact. http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/06/mass-school-off.html
Friday, June 13, 2008
Random Rants
What do you get when Friday the 13th and a full moon seem to come at the same time? Random bouts of weirdness, like the guy falling asleep while receiving a verbal warning from staff about sleeping in the library. Do you not think you're going to get in trouble?
Another weird one, RIAA - the group that is suing people for illegal music downloads - drops a case just before the judge can decide on the defendants motion for dismissal, then refiles with another judge a new case, same defendants, but "convienently" forgot to inform the new judge that the cases were related. This despite the fact that this particular case has been dismissed twice before and was not allowed to be refiled. Read more about that particular action here: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/06/riaa-files-new-action-against-cassin.html I particularly like the comment referring to how the RIAA is looking for the "real" infringers. Sounds like someone else who was looking for the "real" killers...
Funny thing about RIAA cases, when they are pressed to reveal how they have determined that a particular person using a particular computer has downloaded and therefore cost the record company and artist six figure amounts of money, they tend to obfuscate the issue with unrelated information. The thing that seems to keep coming up in these RIAA cases is that the RIAA - which is NOT supported by all recording artists by any means - is on a witch hunt.
Finally, as noted here http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/12/Yahoo_ends_talks_with_Microsoft_nears_Google_deal_1.html
Yahoo is dissing Microsoft for Google. Can we file this in the how far has Microsoft fallen since the antitrust case?
Another weird one, RIAA - the group that is suing people for illegal music downloads - drops a case just before the judge can decide on the defendants motion for dismissal, then refiles with another judge a new case, same defendants, but "convienently" forgot to inform the new judge that the cases were related. This despite the fact that this particular case has been dismissed twice before and was not allowed to be refiled. Read more about that particular action here: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/06/riaa-files-new-action-against-cassin.html I particularly like the comment referring to how the RIAA is looking for the "real" infringers. Sounds like someone else who was looking for the "real" killers...
Funny thing about RIAA cases, when they are pressed to reveal how they have determined that a particular person using a particular computer has downloaded and therefore cost the record company and artist six figure amounts of money, they tend to obfuscate the issue with unrelated information. The thing that seems to keep coming up in these RIAA cases is that the RIAA - which is NOT supported by all recording artists by any means - is on a witch hunt.
Finally, as noted here http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/12/Yahoo_ends_talks_with_Microsoft_nears_Google_deal_1.html
Yahoo is dissing Microsoft for Google. Can we file this in the how far has Microsoft fallen since the antitrust case?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)