Why is Teen Pregnancy Still so Rampant?

Since I was in middle school in the nineties, sex education has been taught to kids. We usually sat uncomfortably while the teacher droned on about how important it was to use condoms, birth control, etc, if we decided to engage in sex. We didn't receive lectures on the importance of waiting until marriage to have sex. Just to make sure to be "smart" and use protection when having sex so that you don't end up with an STD or an unwanted pregnancy.

In the past few months, we have continued to hear about teenage girls getting pregnant. From Jamie Lyn Spears, to the young ladies who made the pregnancy pact, to now, with Bristol Palin being 17 and pregnant. So, where exactly are we going wrong? Why are so many young ladies ending up pregnant and unmarried? Obviously, something is flawed about our sex education system. Or, maybe it's the information that we bombard teenagers with.

Think about it. From the time that kids are school age, parents, teachers, and other adults ram going to college and becoming successful down kids' throats. Going to college and having a career is the end all and be all to life, according to society's current standards. Getting married and having children is something that "responsible" adults wait to do until they are financially stable, and are usually in their thirties or so. That's the message that kids get.

So, if you are a teenager, and your hormones are raging, and you want to have sex, what are the choices? You can be "smart" and use birth control and condoms, and push ideas of marriage and children out of your mind until you are thirty. Or you can choose to wait until marriage like a good girl or boy, and possibly be waiting for about twelve or thirteen years until you finally experience sex. Great options.

I remember as a senior in high school and throughout college, I wanted to get married young. I didn't even mind getting married while I was in college. Why? Because I wanted to have sex, and I wanted to do it within the confines of marriage. I didn't see any other alternative. I sure didn't want to wait until everything was in it's proper little place to finally experience sex. Even though that's what ended up happening kind of. I married at 25, after teaching for four years, and attaining a sense of financially secure. And I was still a virgin.

What's the solution? I think that we should stop telling young people to wait for marriage and children until they are in their late twenties or early thirties. Young marriage should be encouraged more in our society. Of course, young people should be prepared more for adult responsibilities instead of just hanging out at the mall, spending their parents money, and doing whatever pleases them.

The youth need to learn about responsibility and hard work while they are still under their parents roof. Why shouldn't teens learn about budgeting, do the grocery shopping, look through the newspapers for coupons, work after school to earn money, do a large part of the cleaning, organizing, cooking, and other responsibilities of running a household?

If society would get back to actually preparing young people to really be adults when they leave their parents nest, then maybe we would have more young marriages created by young, mature and adult men and women. Maybe that's the best sex education course you could offer to the high schools around the country.