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Questionable Prom Favor

If you consider not becoming a grandparent while your kid is still in high school a “favor,” then you may not be opposed to the parting gift being handed out to some Brooklyn teens attending prom. According to reports, students at Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School in Brooklyn, New York, will be offered a unique party favor upon leaving prom next month – a free condom. The school’s principal, Darryl Rascoe, told the New York Daily News that hundreds of condoms will be made available to students on the night of the big dance. “This is necessary,” Rascoe told the newspaper. … Continue reading →

Revenge of the Lysol Moms

Have you heard about the moms who took cleaning to a whole new level? According to reports, two Colorado moms are being accused of spraying Lysol on teens they saw dirty dancing at a local high school prom. Clearly, the mothers didn’t read the back of the Lysol can very well; otherwise they would have realized that the disinfectant spray kills 99.9% of viruses and bacteria on commonly touched, hard, non-porous surfaces. C’mon, everyone knows even the toughest skinned teens are pretty porous. The moms should have used Clorox. I’m kidding. And by kidding, I mean rocking a mean smirk … Continue reading →

Parents Play a Pivotal Role in Reducing Teen Pregnancy

In the midst of a debate over the best way to lower teen pregnancy rates, whether it is through teaching abstinence or informing teens about the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and methods of birth control, the story of an eleven-year-old girl giving birth to a baby, to me screams, “neither is working!” The fact is, teachers can preach and teach until they are blue in the face, but until parents take initiative in teaching their own children about sex, teen pregnancy is not going anywhere. Teens are constantly being bombarded with images of teen sexuality in television, movies, books … Continue reading →

Does Abstinence Only Education Equal More Teen Pregnancies?

According the Guttmacher Institute, a research facility tied to Planned Parenthood, pregnancy among girls aged 15 to 19 rose 3% in 2005 and 2006. This is the first increase since 1990 as pregnancy rates among teen girls dropped 35% between 1991 and 2005. There is a claim that abstinence education is to blame. “Heather Boonstra, a policy analyst with the Guttmacher Institute, was quick to politicize the findings, calling the upward trend “deeply troubling” and claiming that the results coincided “with an increase in rigid abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which received major funding boosts under the Bush administration.” As far as my … Continue reading →

What Would You Like To Ask A Teen Mom?

This past summer I wrote about a series on MTV called “16 and Pregnant,” a show that follows the life of a teen throughout her pregnancy. Each episode depicts a different teen’s trials of dealing with relationships, high school, parents, jobs and becoming a parent. Now MTV is coming out with a new show, a sequel called “Teen Mom.” This series will depict the difficulties of young parenthood. I have had the privilege of previewing the show, which will first air next Tuesday night, and on Friday I’ll have the opportunity to interview one of the cast members. I would … Continue reading →

Should We Pay Teens to Not Get Pregnant?

Have you heard about College Bound Sisters? It is a program in Greensboro, North Carolina that is designed to prevent teen pregnancy. The program targets younger sisters of teen mothers who are between the ages of 12 and 16, want to go to college, have never been pregnant and are willing to attend an hour and a half meeting each week. In return, for every day that these teens do not get pregnant, they are paid $1. $7 is deposited into a college fun each week that they attend the meeting, are not pregnant, and are still attending school. When … Continue reading →

Teen Vogue Promotes Teen Pregnancy

Who are these magazines for anyway? It was not their intention when they set out, but after the photo shoot with teen supermodel Jourdan Dunn, the magazine learned of the pregnancy and decided to take advantage of a teachable moment. “Teen pregnancy is a difficult, real-life issue that Teen Vogue readers are mature enough to be exposed to,” Astley (Editor-in-Chief)said in a statement. “Teen Vogue felt it was important to support, not punish, Jourdan Dunn, who contributed to a beautiful photo shoot and who will surely have an ongoing and successful career in fashion.” The cover has raised eyebrows among … Continue reading →

Book Review: Annie’s Baby

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Annie’s Baby is a book whose official author is Dr. Beatrice Sparks, an adolescent psychologist who also edited Go Ask Alice. But the book’s real author is “Annie”, an anonymous client of Dr. Sparks, who narrates her story to her diary. As the book begins, Annie is a fairly typical fourteen-year-old—she plays on a soccer team and enjoys rollerblading. She says she’s too much of a tomboy to be one of the “popular girls”, but she has several good friends with whom she likes to go to the movies or the mall. Annie lives with her mom, a teacher. The … Continue reading →

My Inner City Story: Inner City Conditions

In my last blog I talked about the teachers that tend to stay in the inner city, I started there, rather than this topic because if inner city schools are to improve, there has to be teachers willing to teach here. I noted that neither money nor other incentives are as likely to keep good teachers as are mentors. I also believe that some teachers come here not realizing what they’re getting into and thus are set up for failure. But I cannot continue to talk about my experiences here without talking about the conditions in inner city schools. They … Continue reading →

The Week in Review – September 23-29

Welcome to the Week in Review for the Marriage blog. We’ve covered a lot of ground in the marriage blog this week. So let’s talk about our week in review. So let’s talk about the week in review: Saturday, September 23 The Little White Lies That We Tell A lie is a lie is a lie, right? Yes and no. We talk about lies as being good lies and bad lies. How do we separate the lies that are good from the lies that are bad? Why do we call them white lies, but a lie is a lie and … Continue reading →