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I'm actually horrified by this. It can't be tv, the media or lack of knowedge about BC. It's something else entirely that nobody wants to touch.
I would kinda tend to side with ya there considering the county and color of the video, but wasn't there an episode a few years back just like this with the idc attitude, lets make a pac to get pregnant and the cool factor of being teen mom all to familiar with a prominently all white New England school...
Best I can remember that "pact to get pregnant" was mostly a media fueled rumor. Yes there were alot of pregnancies but nobody sat down and decided "let's all get pg together. Won't that be fun!"
I think some areas are more prone to teenage pregnancy because there are few other opportunities for girls and it is passed from generation to generation. Also lack of higher education goals influences teenager girls to deliberately get pg.
Best I can remember that "pact to get pregnant" was mostly a media fueled rumor. Yes there were alot of pregnancies but nobody sat down and decided "let's all get pg together. Won't that be fun!"
I think some areas are more prone to teenage pregnancy because there are few other opportunities for girls and it is passed from generation to generation. Also lack of higher education goals influences teenager girls to deliberately get pg.
I would guess that most of these girls never knew their father and are seeking male affection and affirmation. I would also suspect most grew up in welfare families and just figure that a baby gets them food stamps and even independence from their childhood home by getting them their own housing if they want.
Often the baby is like a new doll they love to carry around and cuddle but after a while many will tire of it. Then the baby can end up like the doll at the bottom of the toy box - kind of neglected.
But to assume the young mothers are worse off than those girls that simply had their babies killed is not necessarily the right assumption. They at least hold some value for their little ones, for life itself. It's not hopeless, they can be good mothers who love their children, but they will find working and marriage later difficult.
I'm not going to bash the director without knowing the details. The article says she "partly" blamed the media. Presumably the quote was part of a larger interview, and the station chose to edit it to focus on that portion. For all we know the kids at that school ARE more influenced by the media than some other kids. I highly doubt that the media is the driving force here, but the director does have some valid points. But again, I don't think the media is the primary issue here, and presumably (or at least one would hope) the director doesn't think that's the main problem, either. It makes an easy TV clip, though, and is far less complex than tackling head on the variety of many other issues possibly at work. The graduate with the kids touched on some of the other problems when she questioned the role of parents, as well as the influence that comes from seeing so many other girls also getting pregnant -- it probably does skew things to make teenage pregnancy look "normal," and I suppose in that kind of environment the media focus on sex and babies amplifies that. So... the report here was really light-weight and skimpy on details, but obviously there is a problem, and while the media probably does play a role, it's certainly not the only or the primary issue at play. I'm going to give the Girls director the benefit of the doubt and assume that they did some selective editing. I've certainly had that happen to me.
26%...that's insane! Sounds like these students need to know that there IS life after high school and that they will want to have a good job and mature some before they start having kids. Why should the kids suffer because their parents made poor decisions?
I wouldn't lay the blame solely on the media, but I also wouldn't underestimate its influence. James Steyer wrote a book in the 90s called The Other Parent (TV), and in it, he wrote about his conversations with teens in which they revealed to him that they get a great deal of information about things like when they should lose their virginity from what they see on television.
The county has a higher teen pregnancy rate than the rest of the nation. 26% of teens get pregnant in that county!
But the woman who heads the organization to curb teen pregnancy, Girls, Inc., blames the media for being sexually orientated.
Does that mean that she thinks only Frasier County youth are influenced by the media and the teens throughout the rest of the country aren't?
What an idiot! CLEARLY the county's teen pregnancy problem is partly due to this women being the director of Girls, Inc.
No, she's right. What you, likely, have here is a combination of the media and few opportunities for girls. In a bad economy, teen pregnancies go up. When you have little hope of going to college, graduating from college and getting a decent job, becomming a mom and findind a man to take care of you starts to look attractive.
I grew up in a city where the teen pregnancy rate was high. The college attendance rate was low. The high school drop out rate was high. If kid don't see a future in education, they move on to other things like starting families way too soon. I agree with the director. I am curious as to how you think the director caused this problem or made it worse though.
Our kids are bombarded with sexual messages from a very young age. Teens live in the here and now and yet we expect them to have a 10 year plan that includes graduating from high school and then college and, finally, starting a career...in an economy when many of their parents are standing in an unemployment line. Are you, seriously, surprised that they don't see that it's not about having fun now while they're young and can?
Teen pregnancy also doesn't hold the stigma it once did. While not applauded, it's not met with the shame it once was.
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Are you, seriously, surprised that they don't see that it's not about having fun now while they're young and can?
