Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Teaching Abstinence "Plus"?

This is probably, if not, a really good topic to discuss after my previous blog post dealing with Mean Rachel about teen pregnancies. I was reading an article about how now, in the state of Texas, public schools will now be teaching both abstinence and about contreception. With this new "plus" added on about teaching 7th and 8th graders about condoms and birth control. It seems as though it lifted a red flag in the Texas government department about the new plan. Apparently 172 students enrolled this year that are expecting a child in the public schools which prompted that they needed a change.

In the article Tracey Dees, who is the supervisor of health services, mentioned girls that are as young as 13 years of age pregnant or have already a sexually transmitted disease. Alot of these schools including the MidWest all the way to Houston are moving forward with this actual plan. The board and district are hoping that this will work even though the legislative have been struggling with this for several years.

Even though I wasn't supposed to find an article, read it, then give my opinions over it, I just found this one relevant and something that could start a conversation. Now for me and my two cents its seems as though teaching about condoms, birth control, and contraception is pushing the boundries, yet if it gets girls that are 12 years old to wait then thats excellent. As long as the parents are fine with teachers informing thier little girls about what condoms and birthcontrol its okay. However, by teaching students (both young boys and girls) contraception will they get the idea that its okay to be sexually active because there are condoms and that they can use birth control? I mean it can lean both ways on this subject at hand. Like what the article I read it was discussing about how young kids in this age group are exposed to alot of sexual things that they see, hear, and watch on television. With this the more we talk about it with preteens and inform them about it, the better. I remember hearing something on the radio about a couple of years ago, or maybe it was on TV, that alot of the teens that are young parents wish that their own parents would have talked to them about it (or something around that same area). This doesn't go for all teenagers but for some its true. Now one thought would be, should the parents talk about contraception to their kids and have this not be taught in a class.

So with this being discussed, I feel that this should be pushed to be taught in class- to a certain extent. I do agree that the more we talk about it to pre-teens the better, or at least get it through their minds on the right thing to do.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Rick Perry Singling Out Women

Oh Mean Rachel, you are certainly a crass lady. OK well, not really. In her most recent blog entry post titled What a Rick Perry Presidency Would Look Like for Women the title is something that is eye catching to someone who just might pass by her blog. If your a Woman that is, I was pretty intrigued myself. By actually reading one of Rachels blog posts, this certainly isn't "mean" persay, as the actual blog is called "Mean Rachel". It seems as though she was stating ugly truth. Like people say, " The truth hurts". However, some of it I can disagree along certain lines of what she is explaining. I have a little different view on the subject at hand.

So pretty much, to sum things up with her blog post, Rachel talks about how Governor Rick Perry has all these laws directed straight to women about abortion topics, shots, and so on and so forth. Like for instance, one she talks about DIC, and goes on to state that the state of Texas has the third highest teen birth rate in the country (eesh). Going further, Rick Perry wants all these plans to protect young women from having a baby at such an early age. With the whole abstinence topic, apparently Perry wants something to pass about this. Which there is one already that will take place pretty soon. During one of our mornings a student (in the class) brought up the subject about how women, during a certain week, will have a choice to look at the ultra sound and hear the heartbeat of the baby. However this is pushing the boundries a little to far, coming to the fact that it may abuse the first amendment. Whatever the case, I feel the whole abortion thing to be such a very fragile subject to even further discuss.

Even when Rick Perry passed the law having women my age, and urge them to get the HPV shot to protect girls. Which I totally agree with that. Whatever the case I do see Rachel's point about the whole topic, but is Perry really trying to single out women in our state? I mean it seems like its the case, but I don't blame him in some aspects. Heck, were the third state that has the highest teen birth rate. Thats just an embarrassment if you ask me. I mean there are some ways to try to prevent the high pregnancy rate in Texas, and it might go down a little if those things are put into action. It really all depends.