The Centers for Disease Control released a new report today that found that Mississippi "now has the nation's highest teen pregnancy rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title." The report found that in 2006, the Mississippi teen pregnancy rate was over 60 percent higher than the national average and increased 13 percent since the year before. While the new report does not explain why the state's teen pregnancy rate is increasing, one reason may be the poor quality of its sex ed programs. As the Sexuality Information and Education Center explains, Mississippi focuses heavily on abstinence education and teachers are prohibited from demonstrating how to use contraceptives
You know, there's the way things ought to be, and there's the way things are. Silly me; I've always believed that if you deal with the way things are, you might stand half a chance of turning them into the way you believe things ought to be. Do this backasswards, though, and you will never, ever see the sun rise on the way things ought to be. Tell that to the good, God-fearing Social Conservatives in Mississippi, who seem to believe that if they think something should be a certain way, then by God it will be. So let it be written. So let it be done. Jesus said it. I believe it. End of story.
Well, sure...I believe that I should be 6' 6", 240 lbs., able run a 4.1 40-yard dash, AND able to drop a football in a receiver's arms 75 yards downfield. Unfortunately, no matter how much I truly, honestly believe this...it ain't gonna happen- not in this lifetime, and probably not in the next. Ultimately, all I'm going to be left with is a very sore arm and a hamstring that looks like shredded wheat.
Is it just me, or have these maroons completely forgotten what it was like to be a teenager, when your every thought, word, and deed was clouded by the hormones racing through your body like Devin Hester returning a punt? If you did it- whatever "it" may be at the moment- during your teenage years, there's an even greater likelihood that your teenage children will be doing it. Living in denial of this reality will not, in fact, change that reality. Indeed, doing so only places your children at greater risk- of underage pregancy, STDs, and perhaps even HIV/AIDS.
The reality is that teenagers will have sex- regardless of how you as parents might feel about that. Your choice is to ignore reality and insist that your children ignore their sexuality...or you can give them the tools to make sound, intelligent decisions about the sexuality. 'Course, if you're living in Mississippi, there's not much doubt about what you're decision's going to be, is there? Then again, you could just wrap them in duct tape until their wedding day....
