That may be so for those in the lower economic bracket. But in reading the linked article in the OP, it’s no clear to me that this study looked exclusively at only those girls who are less economically advantaged. Those in the middle and upper middle class may have benefited from the exercise. Granted, they are at lower risk, statistically.
But let’s say the toy dolls are determined to be a not very effective deterrent to teenage pregnancy. Does that mean it was the only method used? Does it mean all others are equally non-productive? Or maybe it means that for some strange reason it’s not particularly effective with those in the lower socio-economic end of the spectrum?
Whatever the conclusion we draw from this study, I don’t know how it can be reasonably concluded that young girls who are socio-economically and educationally disadvantaged should just resign themselves to teenage baby making because many still live at home with their parents.
Nor should the OP be celebrating in glee because he gets some perverse joy out of children having children.
Shodan, you are begging the question. Do you really think the young women who are starting motherhood at age 16 have the kind of personality and mindset that, if they for instance were unable to become pregnant, would end up graduating from law school by age 25 instead of having three or four kids by that time?
And didn’t the people who Instituted this program consider that the kind of people who find caring for a baby to be too much bother are probably not the sort of go-getters who are going to get advanced degrees and compete in a high-powered corporate work environment?
I would add that a lot of the women who do go on to be high-powered corporate lawyers etc. would be better off having their kids as teenagers and not later facing the stress and expense and heartbreak of infertility.
“Okay, class, this is to be an exercise in teen motherhood. In just a moment, I’m going to walk around and collect all of your condoms, birth control pills, diaphragms, IUDs, sponges— *anything *that can be used as a contraceptive goes in the bag.”
“Awwww, Mr. SlackerInc!”
“Now, now, you’ll get them all back at the end of the semester. Earlier, if you show me a plus sign on the tester.”
Color me genuinely confused but willing to learn from you and others. I don’t pretend to be an expert on how things are in the US these days, given that I’ve lived abroad for a long time.
ISTM that a program to show potential teen parents that babies are fucking HARD is a good thing. Doing it by giving them “babies” is a way to test this. If you then study the results and find it works, awesome! You’ve shown that you have a policy worth expanding.
OTOH, If you study the results and find that your well-meaning efforts did not produce the results you wanted, well…oopsie, let’s be good rationalists, acknowledge that our well-meaning intervention did not produce the results we hoped for, and move on, hopefully to a better program that produces improved results.
“Basking in the schadenfreude” is distasteful and smacks of some other political agenda. Who actually takes pleasure in screwing up the lives of teenagers?
I’d like to help kids avoid teen pregnancies in the most effective way possible. What would you like to accomplish?
I have a rock that stops bear attacks. It always worked for me. I gave it to a friend who hunts a lot and he was attacked by bear. What on earth went wrong?
It’s still unclear to me whether the OP thinks that teen pregnancy is something that should not be discouraged but rather celebrated, as some sort of perverse endorsement of “traditional family values,” or whether he just believes that the only girls who are going to end up pregnant are dummies who can’t be talked out of breeding anyway and deserve whatever misfortune they get.
I still wonder if after 50+ years of the Pill we’re seeing a selective effect: today’s women are the daughters and granddaughters of women who chose to breed (or at least were careless enough to not prevent it).
Lumpy, we must at least be seeing the beginning of that. Cairo Carol and Vinyl Turnip, the answer is “none of the above”. I am a sex-positive progressive atheist, but I do also have a soft spot for babies and parenting (I have four kids of my own, and both my wives were in their early twenties for their first pregnancies).
I don’t think teenage girls should be slut-shamed for being sexual beings, and I do think they should get good, accurate sex ed and access to contraception if they want it, but I don’t believe they should be propagandized into considering young motherhood some dire situation to avoid at all costs, and I definitely oppose pressuring them into abortion or adoption.
Absolutely. You’re looking for wife #3. Preferably a young one without any big ideas about going to college and having a career to interfere with the baby making.
Yeah ! Cause going through tough, competitive universities (like law, medicine, high tech etc…) with no income **and **a baby in your bag is just a breath of fresh air. Plus young mothers find it so easy to find and keep boyfriends, too !