I think that sex ed needs to be taught early on and often. Well, not taught again necessarily, but brought up and discussed. Condoms should be available at school and girls should have info on where to get birth control. Like family planning or someplace like that where the parent's do not have to know or consent.

I also think that girls should be taught (separately from boys of course) all that goes along with sex. How not to do it and why to stand up for yourself. Of course this does not apply to all people, but a lot of girls (more than we know) have sex to feel loved, for attention, to fit in or to keep her boyfriend. If self-esteem were promoted then I think that would make a large difference.

I mean, sex ed really has let us down, so maybe the answer does lie in a completely different approach, such as teaching self-esteem and self-discipline, etc.

One thing that always upsets me is when teen girls think raising your own baby is easy or doable just because they babysit a lot or feel like they've "raised" a sibling or family member

I am doing almost the exact same paper...Mine is due on the 28th. Its an agrumentive paper. My main points were

-parents-
-programs-
-protection-

Yeah I wrote an opinionated essay on teen pg. But I think yours is going a diff way with it. Sorry I cant help

<3
gayb

Make teens aware that you can get pregnant stick em with a baby for a week (even the electronic ones)

make em make a baby finacnial budget in class make sure they can do it if they are having sex they need to be able to afford sex..

Make em aware of how many of their peers actually do have an std and how many actually do go to planned parenthood

the emotional attachment that the guy is likely to leave

stuff like that I ean the onllly class I took related to sex was hmm in like 5th grade they teach u it then in 7th grade we had to carry around flour babies for like 3 days health question help it was a sack of flour just to show u how heavy a baby could be and you couldnt put it on the floor haha they said you had to bring it with you everywhere for those 3 days so most ppl just stayed home...

Then in like 10th grade I took health class and didnt learn anything we just made poster boards and copied notes off the board basically saying dont have sex? Why just cuz hahah or kids would do poster boards on like marijuana use lame

seriously either enforce it powerfully or help protect it

seriously I wouldnt be agianst making it easier access for teens to get contraceptives I mean like I did a report on it saying the average teen wont even go buy condoms for the sure embarassment of it... I mean seriously... I lost my viriginity at a young age and I tried my eyes otu afterwards I wouldnt talk to the guy for over a week... But I did it agian? Why I have no doing it clue!

Oh oh oh and parents get involved medical question! Ahahh I have never ever once had a sex talk with my parents... I mean I know not all kids are like this but I listen to my parents... They tell me to come home at this time i'm home... Tell me not to drink I dont drink (never have dont intend on it!) tell me not to smoke (i dont smoke never have never tried never will) I dont do driugs nothign they tell me I cant drive till i'm 18 I wait till 18 seriously all that stuff I listen I respect i'm not saying that I dont have a free will or like I could have chosen not to have sex on my own becuase I could have but like I would have sooo appreciated them talking to me about it. I mean like I never tried smoking in highschool because not only did I not want to but I was so petrified that if I did somehow someway my mom would find otu and be sooooo upset and dissapointed in me! Seriously... I think I would have felt the same way about sex if she threw the topic at me...

Okay I could go on for hours i'll hush

Well, I don't really think that the fake babies help at all. I remember having them back in eighth grade. We had the ones that cried and everything, and I loved every minute of it!! I kept mine for two weeks, it was so much fun! I was also the only person in the whole grade that didn't cheat on the assignment. The babies have these little keys that you have to use to shut them up, and everyone else tied the key to the baby's hand, so that when it started crying they just had to lift it's arm...Voilah, it stopped!

We also had to do a budget during that time. We went off of what we could expect to get from wic, and then what we would make by ourselves working min. Wage for like 25 hours a week...It was hard, but I managed to get a pretty good menu and everything out of it, so long as I didn't have to pay any rent...

I don't know, sex ed might be a good idea, but I know that none of mine made any impact at all...I think the only thing that really made me think about it was my older sister getting pregnant when she was 15...And even that didn't change my mind, because I still want one...

Sorry i'm not much help...

Daile