OPINION
Sex Education vs. Abstinence Education
L'Asia Brown
In the North Carolina public school system, state law currently prohibits a comprehensive sex education curriculum. Abstinence education is the only program
available to some 765,000 preteens and teenagers aged 12-18 (www.ncpublicschools.org; 2009 statistical profile), who are currently adjusting to raging hormones
and battling puberty in 2010—not 1965, but 2010. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, from 1940
to 1957 the teenage pregnancy rate soared 78%. The rate steadily decreased until the mid 1980s, from which it rose another 24 percent. The rate dropped until
2007, in which it increased, reversing a 15 year decline, according to National Center for Health Statistics.
Tragically, 68% of teen mothers will drop out of high school. The United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate out of all developed countries. It is
twice that of England and Canada, and eight times the rate of Japan. Although 21 states, plus the District of Columbia, allow teenagers to obtain contraceptives
without parental consent, there are still another 29 states with millions of teens who may simply be too embarrassed to ask mom or dad about the pill, the shot, or
other contraceptive methods (www.pregnantteenhelp.org; Teen Sex Statistics). This brings me to believe that North Carolina needs to re-evaluate and tailor its
sex education policies to keep up with the modernized lifestyles of young men and women.
A staggering 49.5% of children in the NC public school system come from low-income homes and receive free or reduced lunch (North Carolina Department
of Public Instruction, Child Nutrition Services), meaning that although the ideal parent should sit down with their child to discuss intimacy, sexuality, contra
ceptive availability, and answer any questions their children may have about sex, many of them are too busy working tirelessly to ensure the child has shoes to
walk to the bus stop in. The child ends up not getting the “sex talk” from anybody, then they go and make the same mistakes their parent(s) did and continue the
vicious cycle of teenage pregnancy that is contaminating low-income neighborhoods across the nation.
These situations are detrimental to a culture during a time when African-American children are being bom more often to young, unmarried mothers than to
established, married couples. Many pro-comprehensive individuals feel that North Carolina is silently catering to a Christian Agenda by ruling out comprehen
sive sex education programs. “Yes the bible states that premarital sex is a sin, but with 78.5 pregnancies out of every 1,000 teens in the US, it becomes an issue
of education verses ignorance. It doesn’t matter whether a child grew up in the church or in an Agnostic home, their hormones are going to get the best of them if
they don’t how to act in pressured situations. They have to know how and have the ability to protect themselves” says Brittany, a senior Sociology major.
■ There is the ideal versus reality, and we as a society must always encourage the ideal, but never stray from teaching reality. “I believe that both should be
taught in public schools. Kids are having kids at younger ages everyday and adolescent STD rates are soaring... We want them to be aware of all the risks so that
they can refrain from [practicing risky behavior] not just hear about them,” comments Omar Blue, a junior Business Administration major.
Commonly in the past, children had three sources of guidance and discipline: home, school and their chosen place of worship, whether it was a church,
mosque, or synagogue. Fast forward to 2010 arid many children and teens get one out of three...school. Teachers can serve as more than talking textbooks and
give needy teens the tools to prevent themselves from becoming statistics, while still encouraging the students to wait for a stable, mature relationship to engage
in intimate behavior. The saying “It takes a village to raise a child” has never been more relevant.
Product Review_ Review Of The iPad
By: James Mundy
Many of us now have the iphone,
or the ipod as forms of communica
tion as well as entertainment. Down
loading different applications and
attributes to these devices is fairly
simple and are very effective. Apple
CEO, Steve Jobs has now released
a new technological device, the
iPad. Similar to a netbook, a smaller
notebook, the iPad will be compatible
with nearly 150,000 programs coming
from the factory. The keyboardless
design of the device allows you to
easily type documents, send emails.
or keep track of day to day activities
without losing any level of comfort
while doing so. Applications from the
iphone can also be run on the iPad as
well. The size of the device is moder
ate and convenient at 9.7 inches.
There are many limitations how
ever to the iPad, one being that it does
not have a camera, a tool that many of
us use daily. It also has no support for
Adobe’s Flash technology, so many
video sites and most online games
won’t work. The iPad doesn’t have a
memory card or a USB port, making
transferring photos, music and videos
a lot harder to do. You can upload
photo files onto iPad, but you have to
purchase an external adapter to do so.
The cost may limit many people from
purchasing the soon to be released
iPad mainly because of a lack of
capabilities and features that many
thought would be there. Its starting
price is $499. This includes 16-GB
of storage, and no 3G broadband. The
price tops out at $829, with the buyer
getting 64-GB of storage, and AT&T
3G coverage.
Don’t become infatuated with
the new iPad. Talks are that in 2011,
Apple will release another version of
the iPad, which will more than likely
have everything the first one didn’t,
but at a different price. If Apple’s
new device interests you, wait until
the review of the iPad comes out to
see if it’s worth spending the money
Apple is asking for. There are also
similar devices out that are roughly
the same price, that do the same
thing. The Amazon Kindle 2 priced at
$259, is essentially the same prod
uct. The buyer just can’t utilize the
amount of programs that one could
having an iPad.
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