Is abstinence education the best way to teach sex ed?

Is abstinence the best way to teach sex ed? It is easy to argue against an abstinence only education but lets take a look at what it COULD do if it was strictly followed by teens. Pregnancy rates would drop-no sex, no pregnancy; STDs would become history for the most part-again no sex no STD transmission; feelings of rejection/hurt for having sex with someone because it is something everyone does would not be a factor in having to prove yourself to your peers. All in all a pretty easy fix to some of our societies problems...BUT...is this realistic? No, it is not. Some adolescents will try sex because the physical feelings and hormone changes are just too over whelming for them, some will be raped some will have parents that don't care if the kids have sex. In my not so humble opinion, not teaching adolescents about condoms, choices (including abstinence), and the risk of having unprotected sex is ludicrous. Not letting teens know there is a safe way to have sex and to prevent pregnancy is not only smart but shows some trust in their judgement. We can't protect our children from everything that happens but we sure can teach them how to be responsible and accountable. Give them choices and I would bet most will make a good choice with a little help from their parents.

Survey Says Fewer Teens Getting Substance Abuse Prevention Messages

Messages of anti-drug use are falling and hence few teens are seeing anti-drug use. There is also less teens participating in anti-drug related programs that were in place just a short time ago. Why? One thing that I can think of is Generational Forgetting. It is a term used in prevention geared at young people mostly. We forget how harmful things can be, hence lighten up on promoting anti-drug use, in this case, to our youth. Montana has done a great job with the Meth Project and locally here with Mariahs' Challenge. The article states that anti-drug aids "hit and miss", thus the drop in teens seeing ads and participating in activities. Parents are a vital part of this article in that it stress different things to look for, regarding abuse. The article did not include any other sort of facet a teen may be involved in, including peers, schools etc.

http://www.adolescent-substance-abuse.com/substance-abuse/survey-says-fewer-teens-getting-substance-abuse-prevention-messages.htm

Social Agression: A Girl Problem

After doing research for my debate on social aggression, I found a lot of information on girls being the bullies and victims. Every site I looked at focused on girls. Surely, boys engage in this kind of behavior too. It may be more prevalent among girls, a preferred choice of aggression, but that doesn't mean that we can ignore the other gender. Boys can suffer from it just as much as girls. In my opinion, more studies need to be done on relational aggression for both genders. Social aggression is not just a girl dilemma.

Is Bullying Learned at Home?

In this article, this study conducted suggests that the "training ground" for bullying could start at home. Siblings, particularly older brothers that act aggressively and have a tendency to bully at school, pass this down to younger brothers, more often then sisters. Conflict at home can be positive in regards to empathy caring and respect. However, it can also have an adverse effect if it is taken too far. The article states that school bullying usually is social and has groups involved, where as at home, there typically is not a group component present. Tips are given to parents on how to monitor for bullying within the home. Some of these are closer monitoring of interactions, Mediate with older brothers, especially if he has a history of bullying at school, and a few others in mediation to allow for positive interaction.

http://www.education.com/reference/article/home-environment-impacts-bullying/

Parents' smoking, drinking influence children Study: Kids' 'play behavior' shows awareness of alcohol and tobacco use

This is one of the articles that I introduced in my debate regarding parents' influencing how their kids can potentially "turn out". Not only does this suggest that parents influence their kids, but so does the media in a strong way, and at an early age. I know this is nothing that is too surprising as this has been a main train of thought for quit some time now. This article is suggesting that even more research is needed. Dr. Joe DiFranza states that the emphasis however, is on how parents influence their kids. He calls children, "Little Learning Machines",and parents need to be mindful on what kids watch, including parents behavior.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9216875/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

Abstinence Only

After reading the article "Is Abstinence Education the Best Education?" in the class readings, I am even more against abstinence only education. Yes you should teach self-respect. Yes you should teach moral responsibility. No, you cannot expect everyone to follow an abstinence only policy. The article mention that we live in a highly sexualized environment, which is completely true. Watch 10 minutes of T.V. and you can not deny it. It is for that reason that we can't expect students to refrain from sex as they are exposed to it on a daily basis. One part of the reading that really put me against the abstinence only view is the following excerpt:

What about all the teens who will remain
sexually active despite abstinence education?
Shouldn't they becounseled to use condoms?

Obviously, if a person is going to have sex, using a condom will reduce the
chance of pregnancy and AIDS, but not
to an acceptable level. Condoms offer
no protection against many other STDs
and their long-term consequences, such
as infertility. Schools have the mission of
teaching the truth and developing right
values-which means helping students
understand why the various forms of
contraception do not make premarital sex
physically or emotionally safe and how
premature sexual activity will hurt them
now and in the future.

If abstinence education doesn't work then the students need to be taught responsibility and safety, teaching the "truth" didn't work already. I felt that the author skirted around this question. I personally side with "Abstinence, but" education

Technology Provides New Forms of Bullying

Although bullying can take place anywhere technology has laid a foundation for it to occur in far greater depths. Before children had access to technology bullying would usually only take place in a face to face content, but now the child cannot escape such harassment anymore. Bullies are able to behave in such detrimental ways via technology that it has become an epidemic. It is unclear how many children are actually bullied not only in the united states but world wide. The serious problem with bullying today, is that these individuals are not able to cope in a healthy or stablemate way. Therefore, serious illness such as depression has skyrocketed consistently.
High tech bullying has been the result of direct and indirect harassment over a longer period of time. Cyber bullying has become on of the most malicious types of harassment in today's world. It has been noted that cyber bullying has a greater so called power over their victims when compared with physical bullying. Cyber bullying is taking place so much because children have direct access to these technological devices while lacking any direct supervision. Even though cyber bullying and so called traditional bullying can have the same side effects there have often been found many more illnesses because more children have access to and take part in bullying behind closed doors. Bullying is not going to cease to end until adult figurative as well as others personnel step in and take responsibility.

Loving or Permissive? The fine line

When the subject of over permissive parenting came up in class, I felt like i knew everything about. Everybody hopes that they will make a loving parent someday but what about too loving. These parents that are too loving are usually referred to as permissive parents. This can cause some major problems in children. Problems with permissive parenting were stated in this article as having trouble forming to society and having a low self esteem.

I experience some of these problems first hand with own two nephews. As much as i hate to say it, my sister and her husband are two of the most permissive parents i have ever come across. It is easy for me to agree with this article because i witness it every time i see my nephews. My nephews were brought up with such a "get whatever you want" and "anything for you sweety" environment that already at ages 4 and 7, my nephews can manipulate there parents into getting anything they want.

The older nephew, Ive noticed, is already starting to develop some psychological issues with classmates at school, his teachers, and even his own brother. The issues i have noticed greatly deal with trust, respect, temperament, and overall social interaction.

I think permissive parenting is a more serious problem for the children then most of us are aware of. I plan on understanding it more so i can be aware of the signs and hopefully not love my kids too much to the point of this situation.


http://parenting.families.com/blog/permissive-parenting-an-overview

Can Your Baby Read?

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Multisensory-Method-of-Robert-Titzer&id=1620484

After learning all about babys and their recognition and memory skills I had to post this. I know we have all seen he comercails for your baby can read and I thought this would be a good place for a disscution on it.

The curriculm is based on dvd's, that the parent plays for the child one or twice a day for about 30 minutes. It also comes with flash card for parent-child play. The curriculum uses a multi sensory method to teach babys read. The Dvd's show the child the word, then say the word then show a meaning of the word. For example if the word was monkey, they would say monkey and show a picture of a monkey. The multi sensory is to get more parts of the brain involved so the baby can make the assosiation between the letters the word and the meaning.

After everyhing I have learned in class about babies learning and using the product with my own daughter I would say babies can read or at least associate words with meanings and the earlier you teach the the more it will help later in life. I think a lot of parents think it is to early to teach them and just puts pressure on them even earlier. Although I disagree, kids love to learn, it is what they do. If we can give them any advantage we should, I know my daughter gets a kick out of the dvd's and prefers them over seseme street. Also the flash cards are a great way for me to sit down and spend tweny minues of quality time with her. I don't know if it teaches to nessasarily read, I know my daughter knows words and can match them with pictures. Although I don't think it is a bad idea to try nor will it hurt.

Are Kids Addicted to Cigerettes or Peers?

http://www.mendeley.com/research/smoking-peer-groups-results-longitudinal-qualitative-study-young-people-northern-ireland/

I think smoking has been a problem for our youth for a long time now. The question is why do kids smoke when they know how bad it can be for their health? well what i got from this article, was they do it to fit in. There has been a lot of research on how conforming to groups is an instict for humans. I think kids smoking just to fit into a group is a real problem. We all know how hard it can be to fit in as an adolesent, and it is sad that kids feel they have to smoke to become part of/ or stay in a group weather it is actually pressured on them or not.Kids having ciggeretes and being able to share with other members of the group, can make them more liked among the group. I think the problem with adolesent group smokers, may be it leading other drugs. Comforming is a natural huuman instict, I think the only way to minimize group smoking would be to make it "uncool" for the groups.

Cognative processes in propositional reasoning with a developing twist

There was an article written in 1983 by Lance J Rips called Cognative Processes in Propositional Reasoning. In this article Rips states,

"If we explain why Steve stayed
away from the dinner party by saying
that Steve believes all parties are boring, we
tacitly assign to him the ability to deduce,
from his general belief and his recognition
that this is a party, the conclusion that this
party will be boring. True, we sometimes attribute
to others deductive errors, particularly
when the route to the conclusion is long
and complicated, and we will see many instances
in what follows. Nevertheless, these
mistakes are only discernible against a core
of logically accurate thought."

To me this is a base logic that applies to all humans, but when do children learn this logic, and when they do...how do they fully accert it to benefit themselves to the highest extent?

To me these questions aren't obvious, i literally would know where to start...so im asking for some input from some of you parents...When do children start accerting logic?

Charming Children: Are your kids charming?

http://www.charmingchildrenct.com/about.html

I just thought I'd have to post this here. The website mentioned above is a literally take to charming children. They want to take your child and teach them manners and discipline. For a nominal fee, you can enroll your children on the path to sucess. I mean with such programs as, "Down the Hatch: How to eat certain foods from pizza and soup to cherry pits and watermelon seeds! "

"Pretty Packaging: How to wrap presents with beautiful presentation"

and lets not forget

"Just For GIRLS:Ladylike ways-being gracious and graceful. Perfume, makeup and jewelry - not too much!"

This is what happens when we leave republicans in charge...

Do blondes have more fun?

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=90506&tqkw=&tqshow=&page=1

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1060195/To-dye-Blondes-really-fun-study-reveals-women-lighter-hair-confidence.html

There are a couple articles that seem to show that blonde women do get more flirty messages as shown on Match.com. This is funny, and slightly interesting. I'm curious if this is something of a closet stereotype showing through. Maybe years of a cultural trend of telling blonde jokes had some influence on what we believe. They also say that brunettes make an average of $4250 more a year than blondes do. Judging by statistics brunettes are also more likely to marry a millionaire, because 2/3rds of the world's millionaires are married to a brunette.

Name Brands and Preschoolers

I thought this article, was a good one to post. I think kids are becoming more and more materialistic at younger and younger ages. I think we, as adults, put the pressures of having name brand items like shoes, clothing or types of food on our kids without even realizing it. Also intern don’t realize how kids as young as preschoolers are feeling social pressure to have these brands. I think it can lead to big problems like low self esteem for kids who don't have name brands.It may build confidence for the kids who do have the name brands, which I think leads to more parents pushing the brands on their kids. Although, makes it hard on the parents who can't afford the high priced items. This article shows children as young as three years old recognize name brands and can associate the brand, with the product. I think it is amazing the things kids can pick up on just by the way their parents, and peers advertise it. I think if people knew more about the effects of materializing their kids it may become less of an issue, although I don’t think it will ever stop. One child will always have something that makes them cool, and another kid won’t have something and will make that child the outcast.

http://www.parentdish.com/2010/03/12/preschoolers-recognize-power-of-brands-study-says

Teen Depression

http://www.teendepression.org/info/causes-of-teen-depression/

http://www.teendepression.org/related/teen-suicide-statistics/

"In adolescents, depressed mood is common because of the normal maturation process, the stress associated with it, the influence of sex hormones, and independence conflicts with parents."

I am unsure of the scope of this problem, they do state that in 2000, 8 in 100,000 teens committed suicide. That's 0.008% yearly. Now this doesn't seem like much, but after finding that the teen death rate in 2000 as a total was 67 in 100,000 teens, it seems to make a bit more sense. It accounted for about 12% of teen deaths. While there may be other problems around, it does appear that teen suicide is pretty serious.

There are also warnings on the website that alcohol or drug use can increase the risk of suicide. Also they say that a history of violence or abuse in the family can contribute. This makes me wonder what we can do to reduce the percentage of teen suicide. Would controlling these catalyst issues have a reasonable effect on the rate? Would stricter policing of substances significantly effect depression and suicide, and could schools target kids that are at a higher risk because of their home life, and enroll them in special programs?

Does abstinence-only sex education work?

http://www.religionlink.com/tip_100309.php

It stands to reason that abstinence is probably the most effective way to prevent STDs and pregnancy, which is generally what we're trying to prevent with sex ed programs. Although the method is 100% effective, it's generally kids not implementing this form of protection is where the problem lies. However the ideas and statistics listed on this website seem to say that the abstinence-only sex education does present an observable decrease in sexual activity.

While the abstinence-only approach may decrease sexual activity, if anyone ignores such a lecture entirely, and goes on to have their fun, they can be unaware of the other options out there that would reduce their risk. There are some that won't pay attention at all to the abstinence lecture, and they should have some right to an education on other forms of protection.

Gay Teen Suicide

Continuing the discussion of bullying, I found that in the past few months teen suicide has been really big in the media which have all been linked to being bullied in some form for being gay. This is a perfect example of the seriousnes of cyber bullying. This is also a demostration of how bullying doesn't stop when you graduate highschool.
Rutgers University honored the memory of Tyler Clementi:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/gay-teen-suicide-sparks-debate/story?id=11788128
Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge Tuesday, days after his roommate allegedly posted video on the Internet of him having sex with another man.


13-year-old Seth Walsh, who recently hanged himself. Walsh's family said he was harassed by bullies for being gay. "The harassment and the teasing and the taunting just became too much," said Seth's grandmother, Judly Walsh.


Raymond Chase, an openly gay 19-year-old student at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., hanged himself in his dorm room. While his brother told ABC News that it was not brought on by bullying, his suicide has sparked further debate on the nature of support for gay teens and gays on American campuses.

On the nature of why bullies do what they do:
Openly gay singer Lance Bass recently admitted that as a closeted teen he would take part in bullying of other students.

According to a recently released study by Campus Pride on how gay students are treated in higher education, gay students experience significantly greater harassment and discrimination. They were more likely to seriously consider leaving school because of it.


This video is Ellen DeGeneres's responce to the suicides.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/ellen-degeneres-speaks-out-on-rutgers-suicide-11773812

Children's Adjustment to Parental death

http://www.antiochne.edu/directory/docs/gtremblaychildrens.pdf

In class we read an article discussing factors that are hypothesized to effect a child when experiencing their parents separation of rearrangement of their family as in the addition of a step family. This article made me curious to know the different factors that might determine how a child will fair after the death of a parent. I found many articles most of which were actually around the topic of adjusting after sibling death. I chose not to change topic to sibling death because I wanted to be able to compare the process that I went through after my father's death to that of what is considered to be a "normal" grieving process for children and adolescents.
The paper I found most useful for what i was looking for was written by George c Tremblay and Allen C. Isreal of the University of Albany and State university of New York (see link above for full text). The paper entitled Children's Adjustment to Parental Death reviews the evidence regarding acute and long-term psychological adjustment of children after the death of a parent as well as the clinical literature describing interventaions for bereaved families. I am not so mutch interested in the latter.

According to the 1991 Census about 1 in 20 kids will experience the loss of a parent before the gae of 18.

Before begining the comparison of "normal" grieving to my own experience, I would like to acknowledge a statement that I particularly apreciated:
"Despite efforts from several theoretical perspectives to describe a "normal" grieving process, appreciating the scope of grief's impact and differentiating "complicated" or "pathological" mourning from a normal developmental process continue to present challenges for the field."

Empirical observations have been made that show many parallels the the gieving process for children and adults: The general patterns of mixed anxiouse and depressed symptomes has been documented amoung toddlers, prepubertal children, and adolecents according to studies done by Kranzle, Shaffer, Wasserman and Davis in 1990; Silverman and Worden in 1992; and Gray in 1987.
It is said that even very young children experience recognizable grief symptomes, but their external behaviors differ in some ways from adults.
The following is a list of child gief symptomes found in the paper that I experienced:
>Appear glib or unemotional in the face of a loss.
>Blithly announce the death to casual acuaintances. Once I even reported the death of my father and grandfather to the sales clerck because I couldn't remeber who's birthday it was (their birthdays are 3 days apart)
>Inability to grasp the significance of the loss all at once
>Ignorance of social expectations regarding mourning behavior
>May approach grief in doses they can tolerate offten with periods of avoidance. i still do this.
>Lack of fluency in identifying and describing feeling states may promote more somatic expressions of distress
>May repeatedly seek reassurance or information related to these issues, often to the discomfort of adults. I even went so far as to make an appointment with me dad's oncologist to have her explain the molecular decomposition of his body and why it effected they way he behaved in the end.

An interesting observation made that ties this article to the article about divorce assigned in class is that the emphasis in explaining long-term effects has shifted from the death and accompanying mourning processes to the changes in family circumstances...like the changes in family circumstance that may effect a child during a divorce.

This quote really shed some light on some of my circumstance, "With adequate care prior to and after the loss, the risk of adult caseness is not apparently raised by the loss of the mother; therefore, the results suggest that it is the quality of attachment and not the trauma of the loss that holds the key to later psychological well-being." Bifulco et al.'s 1992 pg 446. The attachment I had to my father was very VERY strong. I had no desire to be in the same room as my mother. They were divorced, so it was easy to avoid her. However, after his death I was left to live with the unaffectionate wench full time. I went from a supportive loving environment to a a very negative and authoritative hose hold in which it wasn't ok to express emotions. This obviously had some serious effects on having a "normal" grieving process. My ability to form interpersonal relationships was shot. I found myself incapable of having a romantic relationships and sought only loyalty in friendships. I unconsciously wasn't willing to be abandoned so I put up with a lot of relational bullying because my best friend wouldn't leave me if I put up with her shit. People, especially ex-boyfriends, would have described me as cold/hard and uncaring. I had a massive shell that I denied even after a year of therapy. I denied anything was wrong with me. I have since gone through more therapy and a few years of self exploration coupled with tools (from therapy) to help build healthy friendships. I've accepted my mother for the bitch she is and have built relationships with the adults who knew me as a child. I use each new romantic relationship as a learning opportunity and try to stay in them for as long as possible to learn as much as I can. So far the longest of my many MANY relationships has lasted a mear 7 months. I also recently discovered how high of a pedestal I put my father on. No man will ever measure up, so I prefer to date women which presents a whole new plethora of psychological barriers to weave my way around.
Now that I have written a mini essay on my grief story, let me conclude the findings of the article.
The findings presented throughout the article explore only a few variables and stats even fewer as crucial determinant of acute and long-term adaptation to the loss of a parent. These important variables include the quality of parent-child relations before and after the death, the availability of social support for children, and the stability of family circumstances. These variable is different terms were among the 5 variables listed in the divorce article.

End note, "Parental death is best understood as creating a vulnerability, rather than inflicting a crippling injury by itself."

Impatience is a virtue, Maybe?

This article was sent to me by my very impatient friend who says that after reading this article, she finds herself "normal". I told her that this article says impatient people are tense fat and broke.

This article pretty much summarizes how impatient our society has become. What with fast food, express lines, drive through, and over night shipping. This article tells how studies show that technology is our number one reason for impatience. The article states some studies done that show how impatience can cause unhealthy balances in hormones and how impatience can lead to hyper-tension in young adults.

I was curious about how a study could be arranged to see how impatience in adults can effect children and adolescence. It seems to me that all the impatient people i know more or less have families that are the same way. It would be interesting to see if impatience could be a genetic thing or something that is just "rubbed off" on people.

I think impatience is a more psychological problem then some conditions. Trying to slow down an impatient person can be terrifying! I am pretty sure i came close to losing my life a few times because of it.




http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131565694/impatient-nation-i-can-t-wait-for-you-to-read-this

Working Mothers

http://www.suite101.com/content/working-moms-need-not-feel-guilty-a42841
http://www.utexas.edu/news/2005/03/25/human_ecology/
I thought this was a good article to post, I think there are a lot of mothers who guilt themselves into depression just because they work outside the home. I think it is more the way society pictures mothers; at home with kids, cooking dinner, that makes them feel guilty for being at work. For a lot of families in the U.S it is almost impossible to make ends meet with out a two person income. I think it is important for parents to know that it is not the quantity of time that is important. Parents need to know that it is the quality of time that is important. I think it is a good thing for mothers to work; it shows kids equal opportunities are out there and teaches them a sense of responsibility. A mother’s relationship is very important for a Childs development. Although I don’t think the mother should feel guilty about not being there all day every day it will not hurt the child in my opinion.

Pacifiers and SIDS

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070312152207.htm

This was something interesting that I had heard one of the nurses mention when my son was born.

There seems to be a correlation between the use of a pacifier and a reduction in the occurance of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). This attributes SIDS as the third leading cause of infant death. No one really knows why pacifier use appears to have an effect on SIDS. The general train of thought is that parents should give their children pacifiers, if it helps prevent SIDS, that is good. However, if it doesn't help and the correlation is simply a coincidence, there's no problem in that because pacifier use is a very low-risk activity. Also, the article describes that parents should be counceled on how to use a pacifier safely. I guess it seems a little silly, but some people need to be told.

Single-Parent Families

http://family.jrank.org/pages/1577/Single-Parent-Families-Effects-on-Children.html

I found this article about the effects of single parent families, and found some things to be quite interesting. They attributed the child's adjustment to divorce to four factors: the passage of time, the quality of the relationship with the child's residential parent, conflict between parents, and the economic standing of the child's residential family.

Interestingly, it seems that fathers become disinterested in their seperated children a majority of the time. Also, while the loss of a father can have implications stretching beyond childhood, it seems that the larger issue is simply the loss of the male income to the family.

"Groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation" WTF!

The article listed below is a pieced that was published in Washington DC. It deals with the the issue of childhood obesity and how First lady Michelle Obama is putting together an initiative to combat childhood obesity.

Are you kidding? I think what this article is saying is that our country has just now figured out that childhood obesity is a problem and should be mitigated. Another question is why are they just now worrying about the quality of the foods in our schools? Haven't schools been serving lunches and sometimes breakfasts for the past 40 years at least? But yet we are just now concerned with feeding our children quality, healthy foods.

I don't believe they should call this initiative "groundbreaking". Groundbreaking, to me, sounds like something that has just been thought up recently. To say that our country has not been concerned with the health of its youth is a little scary. I am just glad that i packed my own lunch for all the time i went to school. If i had my child eating school lunches and this issue was brought up, i might be a tad bit upset.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101202/hl_afp/healthusfoodpoliticschildren_20101202223740


This next article is a study published in the ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) journal showing how obesity rates vary in ethnicity as well as age, gender, and BMI. It states that obesity rates are found to be higher in certain genders although they are more active. This is actually very interesting because staying active is usually the number one factor in fighting obesity.

The study was made up of 3,106 american children of all different race, age, gender, and socio-economic status. The study said the researchers looked at physical activity, age, ethnicity, dietary intake, and BMI.

BUT, (of course there is always a but), the study states that they incorperated dietary intake although nothing was stated in the article about what the children were ingesting on a daily basis. physical activity is one of the main guards against obesity but one also needs to make the healthy choices when it comes to nutrition also.

I think that this study might have found some different results if they looked more into the nutrition that these kids were dealing with.


http://www.news-medical.net/news/20101207/Researchers-examine-relationship-between-childhood-obesity-physical-activity.aspx

Sexting and Teens

A new study shows that 1/4 of all teens send sext messages (these are racy texts or pictures of private parts), and many parents, including me, are worried about the long term consequences that may come of this. I am concerned for one that my teenager is engaging in a behavior that is too old for her adolescent mind to process, such as being asked for her picture, or that such behavior may have long-term negative consequences that teens are not aware of. Once a text is sent to another phone, the owner of that phone can then send the text to anyone he/she wants to, who then may send that to whomever they want to. This has the possibility to have inappropriate pictures or comments sent around to a whole class before someone is aware. I understand that teens have a curiosity about sex and may act out concerning sex, but may not even understand what the sext is eluding to. Furthermore, a naked picture can be sent around awful fast when someone doesn't want them to. I believe part of the problem is the news surrounding sexting. Tiger Woods, Bret Favre and Tony Parker have all been involved in sexting scandals, but are still visible figures where teens may not see the serious consequences to those actions. Certain phone companies are now posting public service announcements because it has become such a problem.

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/sexting-in-america-the-medium-the-message-and-the-truth-about-teens.html

Teens and baby names

I was browsing a list of top baby names for 2009 and 2010 and found that teenagers tend to pick out non-traditional names for babies (Bentley after the car) or names of characters of their favorite books/movies/musicians (Isabella after Twilight and Heath after Heath Ledger). It has me wondering if this is symbolic of the problem with teen pregnancy in general. The babies having babies saying is never more true than when kids are asked to give their children permanent, lifelong names. Heath Ledger died after a drug overdose, but was cool in the Batman movie so I will name my son after him. Jackson also jumped up the list after the death of Michael Jackson...I used to think that was a cute name. So I am thinking that when kids of kids of their own, they are not able to process that a name is important and lasting, not something that is fleeting or tied to what is trending at the moment. I think it speaks to teens inability to think about long-term consequences of actions.

http://content.usatoday.com/entertainment-post/michael-jackson-twilight-influence-popular-baby-names.html

Spanking your kids...good or bad

The article I found concerning spanking your kids states that if a culture finds spanking appropriate, children aren't damaged by its occasional use. The article states that if spanking is the norm in a culture, than parents aren't as agitated by doing so and less likely to combine spanking with losing their temper. According to the research being done, children who are never spanked are not better off than children who are...once again when spankings are for punishment and considered culturally appropriate. What I found was that this article does not condone spanking as a form of punishment, but states that children who were spanked do not have the commonly assumed problems later in life, such as anti-social tendencies or depression. I am not sure it states that spanking is a good thing, just that it isn't causing as many problems as may be assumed. I personally have never spanked my children, but have used other punishments such as grounding and removal of privilidges. I hope that these forms of punishment will have instilled a sense of right and wrong in them and learning from mistakes, if not they are a little old to start spanking now.

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/some-kids-are-never-spanked-do-they-turn-out-better.html

Condoms in schools for Kindergarten

I found the following article on Condoms given out to children in schools.
What I found interesting was that the research showed that condoms offered to students lower the rate of teen sex, or at least lower the rate of teen pregnancy. The article also stated that condoms do not cause children to think about sex or want to have sex. Essentially, research has shown that when a student asks for a condom and receives counseling on abstinence and then also a condom, the outcomes are positive. Unfortunately, the article focused on one part of this program which essentially states that even someone in first grade could ask for a condom from the school nurse. This is true; however, is improbable due to the education level and hormone level of first graders. I liked that the article stated condoms do not cause teens to have sex, rather raging hormones, peer pressure, sexualized television and a lack of education/knowledge on the long term consequences of sex. It has always been my belief that sexual education needs to talk about prevention methods as well as abstinence.

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-smart-policy-behind-the-dumb-headline.html

Is Marijuana Use Harmful to Pregnancy

I found this article to be really interesting because the study was done on the effects of ganja use during pregnancy in Jamaica. One of her studies showed that children of the ganja using mothers were superior to the other children in two ways. The children had better organization and modulation of sleeping and waking and were less prone to stress related anxiety. Dr. Melanie Dreher also found that the marijuana helped relieve morning sickness it also helped prevent depression and fatigue and improved the mother's appetites. She also reported that there was no signs of birth defects or behavioral problems following up to age seven years.

When she compared marijuana using mothers babys to non marijuana using babies she found that the quality of alertness in the marijuana babies was much higher then the others. There motor and autonomic systems where more robust, they were less irritable and they needed less examiner facillitation to become organized. They also had better self regulation and they were judged to be more rewarding for the caregivers then the babies of the non using mothers at one month of age. Dr. Melanie Dreher has studied this for thirty years and has nothing bad to say about marijuana use during preganany. I know of some people who were actully prescribed marijuana for there mourning sickness and it helped them and there baby was fine. I don't see anything wrong with a pregnant mother smoking marijuana only if it is Prescribed to them. Other then that I think that a mother should take care of her self and her baby.

http://4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com

TV Beneficial for Early Child Development

In this article I found it interesting to know how educational TV is for young kids. Shows such as "Sesame Street", "Dora the Explorer" and "Super Why", are proving to enhance literacy in kids. They did a longitudinal study on the program Sesame Street and found that "exposure to the program in preschool years was significantly associated with secondary school achievement." There was also a study done on the show Super Why, which aires on PBS a local channel, and it proved the children from low income families are learning core literacy skills. Another study proved that by kids watching the show "Meet the Letters", they were able to learn there alphabet in under two weeks. My oldest son Ethan loved to watch "Sesame Street Count with Me",all the time and because of that, I think that's how he learned how to count so fast. When he was in Headstart his teachers commented on how he knew way more numbers then anyone else in his class. I think that these programs are great for kids. It keeps them entertained and it teaches them skills they will need later on. Like Dora for example, her show teaches a variety of things , number one being a second language. It teaches patterns, colors, puzzles, counting sharing, you name it. Both of my children love watching her and they are benefiting from it at the same time. http://kidstvmovies.about.com/

ADHD Medication

The prescription drug Ritilin and Adderall are commonly used to treat ADHD in children. After reading this article it gave important information about how much prescription use in children and teens has risen just from the years 1995 to 1999. It said there was a 26% increase in those years for children taking this prescription drug. Just imagine how high it is now. It also argued that the reason why they are prescribing this medication so much is because the criteria of being ADHD keeps changing. Which in turn puts more kids on the list of being prescribed the drug. The long term effects on the developing brain from these drugs is still unknown. But, parents argue that they rather have there kid be on medication then have them grow up and have social and academic problems. I personally think that Doctor's answer to everything is take this pill. My oldest nephew was prescribed Ritilin when he was five years old. He took it for three years and there was still no change in his behavior. Then they would take him off of it for awhile then put him right back on. He is now twenty one years old is not taking anything for his " ADHD", and seems to be functioning fine. Another example of a person being diagnosed with ADHD would be my father in law. They had put him on every medication possible and nothing worked. In fact some of the medication had caused him to be suicidal. After awhile my father in law said to hell with medication,and is currently in good health. I think that ADHD medication should not be prescribed to children. Meaning three years old to ten years old. Children are still developing and if there behavior is a little to hyper for you, I don't think you should try and fix it with a pill. If anything try something else rather then having drugs be your first option.

www.vachss.com

Immunization's Harm Child Development?

There have been many arguments whether immunizing your child is beneficial. Some say that immunization is necessary because it helps protect your child against deadly viruses. On the other hand some vaccines can cause serious injury or even death. Vaccine manufacturers have even said that most vaccines have not been evaluated or tested for there carcinogenic potential, mutagenic potential or for impairment of fertility. There are also no genetic or lab screening tests available to determine which children will react to a vaccine. There have also been arguments that vaccines can cause autism in some children. They say that some of the vaccines have a high does of Mercury in them and that some children's bodies have a hard time eliminating them. There is still no evidence out there on whether or not some vaccines cause autism. I personally think that it is very possible. My nephew Gavin was diagnosed with autism when he was three years old. My sister and I did not see a change in his development until he was about one years old and just received a shot of some vaccine not to long before that. I feel that immunizing your child is important but, I also feel that if we are going to be injecting our children vaccines we should know everything about that vaccine, exspecially if there is a possibility that our children could develop autism or something worse.

www.teaam.org/autisim

www.hslda.org

Breastfeeding vs. Bottlefeeding

This article I read contains the pros and cons of breast feeding verses' bottle feeding. It had alot of information on both but, it seemed that there were more pros to breast feeding then bottle feeding. One of the points it made was " None of the important antibodies found in breast milk are found in manufactured formula, which means that formula does not provide the baby with added protection against infection and illness that breast milk does. It also emphasized that breast fed babies do not get sick as much and them having higher IQ's then bottle fed babies.
In another article I read it had information on a survey that 36,000 women who breast fed took. The results were that 33% of breast feeding mother's think that women that bottle feed are just selfish and lazy. Which I thought was horrible. I did not breast feed either of my boys because it was just not for me. Both of my sons where on the bottle from birth and there health was fine and still is. I did want to breast feed, but when it came down do actually doing it, I did not feel comfortable. Some mother's can not produce breast milk so they can breast feed there baby's. Is that being lazy or selfish? I think not, the way I look at it is I did what was comfortable for me and I got to share that bonding experience with my husband. Breast feeding or bottle feeding is the mother's decision, what ever she chooses is right for her baby is her business, after all " Mother knows Best".

STEM vs Arts, Humanities, and Music Studies

Today's debate over what areas schools should focus on when educating students was very interesting and since we didn't have time for much class discussion, I thought I'd give you my two cents here. First of all, I would like to say that I fully understand the importance of math, science and technology in today's society. Basically, it's all around us every single day. However, I am going to have to side with the pro-liberal arts group on this one. I agree that some people are truly gifted when it comes to the STEM type classes and skills. I was not blessed with any such talents. I have very little interest in science and even less interest in math. I have always excelled in English and writing, and I enjoy reading and learning about people and places, rather than numbers and theories. That's just the type of person I am. If my high school had put a bigger emphasis on math and science and made higher level classes required, I would have hated going to school, and probably done very poorly. I understand that the world needs brilliant scientists and mathematicians, but not everyone wants to go into science related fields, and to specifically plan out a curriculum with the hopes of discovering new talented science kids, is wrong. I do, however, believe that if a school has the resources available to add more advanced classes for those students who are truly passionate about science and math, then they should definitely do so. But, I don't think that those extra classes should come at the expense of liberal arts classes because, in my opinion, there should be a relatively equal number of courses offered to interest each type of student.

Cyber Bullying

Thinking about the debate that was presented Friday about cyber bullying, I thought the debate was great!

Both sides very clearly and very concisely. Some excellent points were brought up about the amendment rights and how cyber bullying does in fact effect how children perform in school and how their social lives could be greatly effected. I do agree with both points that were brought up and can understand how cyber bullying can do this to today's youth.

I believe that cyber bullying is a huge problem and needs to be managed somehow. I just think that the school system should not have to be the ones to accept the consequences. I believe that unless the school requires these children to have a facebook account, carry a cell phone, have a myspace, or twitter, Then the school should not be held responsible for the actions of today's youth society.

I think of this problem as one that can be taken care of extremely easily. I mean, nobody is forcing these children to have these online social networks and cell phones. If it becomes such a huge problem for these kids, why don't they just delete their facebook page or change their cell phone number?

Sex Education Groups for Adolescent Girls: A Review of Current Practice and Research

In the Article that is attached, the main purpose is to express that need to inform our female youth to respect and hold their bodies closer to their hearts, and to embraces who they are. Much information is given in the article, with a few ideas that I find particularly appealing. The first is mentioned at the beginning and consists of Psycho-educational groups. There is power in numbers and I too, believe that by being involved in a group draws out the uniqueness in all that partake and encourage togetherness. Secondly, I found the idea of open-mindedness to be effective. There is evidence stating that the effectiveness of the sorts of information we are providing our young female is lacking in several areas. This article states that our teen aged pregnancy rate is twice as high as Canada, and eight times as high as Japan and Netherlands. Another point that was brought up in this article, is that of the economical status of different ethnic groups. In the US higher rates of pregnacy and sexually transmitted infections is greater in lower economically stable conditions. Lastly, I agree that much more research is needed to find a good fit for all of the young girls that are in this country, and for the future generations to come. Knowledge is power.


http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=gjcp

Effects of Same-Sex Parenting

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00823.x/full

This post was brought on by a comment made in class stating that the children of same-sex parents are more likely to experiment with their sexuality (having relations with the same sex).
I do not believe haveing a gay parent makes a child biologically more likely to engage in homosexual acts. I do believe having an accepting home environment permits for more exprimentation if one is uncertain.
The study I found refutes the statement made in class statement.

The report for this study starts out with the importance of studying the topic of the effects of same-sex parenting on the child and its recent popularity in the press, research the community, and medical profession.
This study examined associations among family type (same-sex vs. opposite-sex parents); family and relationship variables; and the psychosocial adjustment, school outcomes, and romantic attractions and behaviors of adolescents. Participants included 44 12- to 18-year-old adolescents parented by same-sex couples and 44 same-aged adolescents parented by opposite-sex couples, matched on demographic characteristics and drawn from a national sample.

They expected to find few differences in adjustment between youth living with parents who had same-sex versus opposite-sex partners. They did, however, expect to find associations between family and relationship variables and adolescent adjustment outcomes which were consistent with current literature findings.

Results:

Here is a direct quote from the specific findings of childrens romantic relationships:
"Analyses of adolescents' reports of romantic attractions and behaviors revealed no difference between the groups in the percentage of adolescents who reported ever having engaged in sexual intercourse (34% of adolescents with same-sex parents and 34% of those with opposite-sex parents). There was also no significant difference between the groups in the percentage of adolescents who had had a romantic relationship in the past 18 months (68% of adolescents with same-sex parents and 59% of those with opposite-sex parents, ns). Fewer than 10 adolescents reported same-sex attractions and same-sex romantic relationships in the past 18 months; therefore, under stipulations that permit use of these data, group comparisons are not presented. Reports of romantic relationships, attractions, and behaviors did not differ as a function of age or gender except that older adolescents were more likely than younger adolescents to report having had a romantic relationship in the past 18 months."

Other results:
Regardless of family type, adolescents were more likely to show favorable adjustment when they perceived more caring from adults and when parents described close relationships with them. Thus, as has been reported in studies of children with lesbian mothers (e.g., Chan et al., 1998), it was the qualities of adolescent–parent relationships rather than the structural features of families (same- vs. opposite-sex parents) that were significantly associated with adolescent adjustment.

An unexpected aspect of their results was the finding that adolescents' feelings of connectedness at school varied as a function of family type. Adolescents living with same-sex parents reported feeling more connected to school than did those living with opposite-sex parents.

Limitations of the study:
The study involved the use of data collected from both adolescents and their parents, but no observational data were available. Thus, we had no observational assessments of adolescents' actual interactions with parents, peers, or teachers, but relied instead on adolescents' and parents' reports about their interactions and relationships.

Parents make a difference

The other night I was reviewing some psychological profile notes on an officer candidate that I had been considering for dismissal from Officer Candidate School (OCS) in 2000. He was being considered for dismissal because of his abusive way of getting others to do what he wanted. As his Commander it was my duty to make a decision if he should continue a career in the Army after OCS or to recommend he be discharged from the Army. I recall talking to him about his abusive behavior towards his peers, especially females and those younger than he. He told me in no uncertain terms this was the way he was taught to get what he wanted, and no one could change his behavior since it was his father that taught him all of this and his father wasn't wrong!

My review of those notes make me realize the impact parents have on their children, positive and negative. This individual was convinced he was doing the right thing by coercing and bullying his peers into doing what he wanted. He would have continued this behavior in the Army if he had been commissioned an officer or allowed to stay in the Army. The notes were an interesting read on how a person can be influenced by their parents. This individual stated he had learned early on he could get his father's positive attention by telling him how he had been able to coerce and bully the other children at school to get his way or to get others to take credit for things he had done wrong. His father encouraged him to continue to do what was successful and he would never have to "eat shit" from anyone.

I think parents are a big influence on how children turn out in our culture. If parents encourage bullying, then we will most likely get bullies and intolerant children; if parents encourage tolerance and open mindedness then we will most likely get more tolerant and open minded children. Parents are not the only influences on children but I think parents create the atmosphere that determines how a child will turn out in our culture.