"Tough truths about teen pregnancy" by John McWhorter was the article I have read for my 4th journal entry. In this article, the author addresses the topic of teen pregnancy prevention. The main thing he talks about is Michael Powell, of the New York Times, method of teen pregnancy prevention. Powells idea of prevention was to put posters up that had crying or upset toddlers with things such as "I'm twice as likely to not graduate from high school because you had me as a teen" written across them. These posters are called the shame-and-blame game, they are trying to shame young people into not having children yet. In the article, Powell admits that he personally ranks his idea to do the shame-and-blame game as one of the studidist moves he has made. The author, however, believes that the tactic used was great.
John McWhorter believes that these posters are welcome in society because of all the attempts to prevent teen pregnancy made by society. He compares teen pregnancy to adultery and to lying, saying that in most societies, no one would try to take the shame out of doing either of those. He argues that we have come to see teen pregnancy as a norm and that is why there's not more being done against it. Remedies Health Communities would argue that teen pregnancy isn't what has become the norm, but sex outside of marriage is what has become the norm, and pregnancy is just a result of that.
This article has caused me to realize that teen pregnancy is becoming a normal thing anymore. It's everywhere, no matter where you go there are teen parents. I don't agree with the shame-and-blame game at all though, those posters are more directed towards the teens who already have children and no one wants to be told that their child has a disadvantage in life now because of the age of their parents. I don't even think that this method of prevention makes sense, how do they come up with the age of the parents being what affects the childrens behavior in school? In my opinion, the shame-and-blame game should transfer their focus to teens having sex. If it forced them to see what the consequences of it could be then they might take more action against getting pregnant in the first place. You can shame young parents but it doesn't change or affect their decisions from the past at all so it was just a big waste of time for them to post things that are directed towards the parents. Preventing teen pregnancy takes place before the pregnancy has happened, not after the pregnancy.
Many questions have come to mind while reading this article. My biggest question would have to be why? Their method of prevention could have been so effective if they would have just chose the right targets. I know how difficult it is to be a young mother, but I do not agree with most of the things I have read in articles. It seems to me that most of the critics don't have an insight about the problem at hand like I do. I really feel like they went to the ghettos to do their research and now all of us young parents who are doing a good job and making the best of our situation are being thrown in the same categories as the parents out their who have no business being parents. I would like to do some research about these statistics. I want to know how they came up with the information that they did and how many people were involved in their studies. I would also like to know where the studies were done.
www.nydailynews.com/opinion/tough-truths-teen-pregnancy-article-1.1294329
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