What Needs to Happen?

A few posts ago I wrote about schools and their sex education programs. Ninety four percent of Texas school districts use an “abstinence only” program in their schools. According to our numbers, it’s clearly not working. Texas has the highest number of repeat teenage mothers in the country. Some schools have decided to change to an “abstinence-plus” program, which would teach kids about contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases as well.

I went to a very small, very religious, private high school. Therefore, I was extremely sheltered in most aspects of the world. In my sophomore year, my school decided to provide a mandatory sex education class. Being short of teachers, the principal taught this very informative class. Well, we didn’t learn much. I still had no idea what sex was, but if you show me a STD, there is no doubt in my mind that I can name it. Great party trick, huh? We were not taught about our bodies, or our options, but only that with sex came deadly diseases that we were sure to get. Needless to say, by the time I graduated, almost one-third of the girls at my school had been kicked out. (That’s right, we didn’t teach them how to be safe, and when they “messed up” we just got rid of the evidence.) This clearly was the wrong way to go about teaching kids about sex.

I think the only logical option we have to lower our teen pregnancy rate is to give kids the facts. The real ones. No parent wants their teenage kids having sex, but I think most would rather not have grandkids when their in their late thirties. Kids shouldn’t grow up with parents that didn’t want them either. I think all schools should implement the “abstinence plus” program. Regardless of what we want, kids are going to have sex. The more we don’t talk to them about it, the more interested they are. All schools should be required to teach kids about safe sex. There shouldn’t be a choice in the matter. If we want to be better than 48^th on the scale of teen pregnancies, something has to change…now.

Occupy Austin

Robbie Cooper writes for a blog called “Urban Grounds.” On October 7^th, he wrote a post entitled, “Occupy Austin-Idiots and Morons Converge to Demand Free Stuff to Subsidize Their SlackerLifestyle.” In the post he talks about how the people who chose to occupy Austin are, in a word, lazy. There is a picture of a young, tattooed, pierced, bearded man holding a sign saying, “Will work for an education (thousands of dollars in student loans (debt)).”  Cooper writes,

“Son, you’re unemployed because You. Are. Unemployable. No one made you take out thousands of dollars of loans to pursue a worthless BA degree in a social science, all without a thought of how you planned to pay back that loan. And just look at you? Would you hire yourself for any job other than as a stocker at Whole Foods or a cashier at Waterloo Records? “

                      

Mr. Cooper rants that the world doesn’t owe anyone anything. Everyone works to get where they are and those that don’t work for it, don’t deserve it anyways.

The thought that going to college and getting a degree ensures that you will have your dream job instantly is laughable. A degree promises nothing but a piece of paper. But isn’t that what we are all after? A promise of a job or a career we love? One that pays all our bills and entertainment? There are PhD’s working at McDonalds right now. This economy promises nothing. Those that are protesting want free healthcare and a free education. Nothing is ever free. I work 45+ hours a week, while taking 16 hours in classes. Those 45 hours pay for the other 16. I pay out of district tuition and don’t use student loans. When I graduate, I hope for a dream job, but I also know that it is not a guarantee. That’s a risk every student takes.