Ally's loves her pink pool :)

Ally's loves her pink pool :), a photo by Treenie Beanie on Flickr.

Ally's giant sun hat

Ally's giant sun hat, a photo by Treenie Beanie on Flickr.

Counterargument to Sex Education

If schools started teaching students a more comprehensive approach to sex education I believe they will begin to think that having sex is okay as long as it is protected sex. By giving students the opportunity to learn about safe precautions to take while having sex, we are giving them the impression that it is okay to have sex as long as they are being careful. Students should be taught Abstinence only while in school so that they are continually reminded that the only safe sex is no sex at all. I think it is only fair for teachers to teach students this approach because it should be up to the parents to decide when it is appropriate and the right time for their children to learn about sex and the risks that are involved. Also, with this approach students may be a little bit more hesitant about having sex because they are kind of conditioned to believe that sex is wrong. With constant media and surrounding peer influences, it is important to push the idea that abstinence is the only way to protect yourself from unplanned pregagnancies and STDs.
Let’s be honest, kids are going to make their own decisions based on their personal influences and situations anyway, so why not let them figure things out on their own, but still let them know that the only way to really protect themselves is to not have sex at all.

Megan Caruthers

smaller is not the answer!

For my arguement people say that we do not have the money to pay for extra teachers and the space needed. They say it is not needed we could find other ways to help the kids without reducing the class sizes. There is other teaching methods that have been experimented and helped, but they have not worked as well as the smaller class sizes. They argue that we would be cutting into funds that are needed in other places. These other teaching methods such as one called formative assesmemment, which would only cost 2,000 per class per year instead of the estimated 20000 for reducing class sizes. This involves stopping a few minutes after each session and talking abotu was learned, and if the student dont understand the lesson they they must go back and relearn it.

Students Using Prescriptions Illicitly

When students use prescription drugs illicitly they use excuses to justify why they take these pills. Some excuses sound good but are still not valid. One reason that they use to justify taking these pills is that it helps them focus. When taking Adderall it has helped patients diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder to be able to focus and stay on topic. Another reason some students use to justify is that they can stay up longer and not feel tired in class. When students use Ritalin to stay awake along with other methods of staying up it puts there health at risk. They may be staying up and focusing more but they are not helping themselves in the long run. When they stay up and study for a test using these drugs they don’t get their best rest for the test they are studying for she they are going to do the same if not worse on the test because they will be exhausted.

Lack of Financial Aid

The government states that it is not their responsibility to fund a students’ college education, it is the responsibility of the family to support their child through all their schooling. If we gave financial aid to any student whose parents would not help them through college, than every family would just deny their child any financial help for college, and the government would have to give financial aid to every student. If financial aid was given to students who do not receive funding from their parents, there would be more people taking advantage of the system. Financial aid would be a lot easier to find loop holes to receive it also. Since there would be more people receiving financial aid, there would be less money to go around, therefore everyone would receive less money for college. The family’s that truly can’t afford college would not receive as much help as they are receiving now, and some low income family’s might have to give up the dream of college because of the lack of financial aid available for them.

My best friend and I have been friends since we were seven years old. We did everything together. i said did everything together because now our time is limited and sometimes she doesnt feel well enough to do certain things. She developed a lot faster than most girls at our age. this caused a lot of male attention. Not only male attention but older male attention. At the age of 15 she got a boyfriend. he was an 18 year old senior. He always had a reputation for sleeping around but when he met her he was a one women man. When she turned 16 she lost her virginity to this boy. Of course she did not think it was a big deal that he was not a virgin because she loved him and she new that she meant more to him than any other girl ever did. A year later she was having problems, she was sick all the time. she was also always tired and never felt like doing anything. I felt like i was losing my best friend and i was actually a little upset with her. She went to the doctor to find out what was causing her fatigue. The results came back one month later totally unexpected, she was diagnosed with HIV. When i found outi went to her house and held her as we both cried for hours. i felt like my friend was getting ripped away from me to soon. This changed both our lives and plans for the future. We were suppose to be room mates in college, be neighbors when we got our own houses, have kids at the same time so they can be best friends too, and finally coctail parties in the Bahamas when we are old and grey. Most of this will never happen because she did not go to college, has choosen not to have kids, and she might not live long enough to get to the Bahamas. She never used a condom with her boyfriend because she was on birth control, she did not see the use. Condoms are 90% effective in protecting against HIV/AIDS. We were never made aware of this. we were only taught that if someone has sex before they are married they will most likely contract an STD. We thought the message was silly and it was just adults trying to scare us out of the fun in life once again. They never once were realistic and told us about our other options. That is because we had an abstinence based program. Teenagers in America have the highest STD rate out of all Industrial countries. This is exactly why we need to provide to our young people information on safer sex. More than half of teenagers have pre-material sex before they graduate high school. That is more than the majority. They need to be taught safer sex for their health and others health as well. Abstinence is a good thought but it is unrealistic to think that it will make every teenager choose to abstain from sex untill marraige. Schools need to give kids more options. They need to teach safer sex in sex education so America's future can be healthy.

i posted this on my own blog and i thought i posted it in this one. It was posted befor the due date