1. Culture- There’s a culture against children in those countries either because of fear of overpopulation (environment) and probably a higher rate of abortion as well. And it flows into the second reason.

2. Welfare- The United States rewards those that have birth out of wedlock financially, such that it discourages marriage. In foreign countries a child is a financial burden on a family whereas in the US it’s more of a burden on your independence. So, there is financial incentive to have children.

Still– I would say that the parents are the greatest weapon in preventing this problem, and that the most effective way all together is to get society on board as a whole and work on all avenues.

They have more sex education classes and they are countries that are far less religous than the USA.

Their teenagers are sexually active. Are they naturally smarter than American kids in that they can avoid getting pregnant?

I don’t believe that and I’m sure you don’t either.

If teenage girls living in slums in the US were certain to get a decent interesting job when they graduated high school (nurse, hairdresser, mechanic as opposed to wroking in Fast Food all their lives) and could date boys also confident of getting a good job (plumber, carpenter, fireman as opposed to being some pimply teen in a gang and about to be in and out of prison all his adult life) you would see the numbers of teen pregnancies drop sharply.

Girls would have true incentive to delay having children and the boys who used to knock them up would have pride in being productive members of the community, not one month sperm donors who measure their status of manlihood in how many [illegitimate children] they produce.

Teen pregnancy has to do with class and life opportunities.

A sixteen year old girl should have bigger dreams of recieving respect and power in her community than popping out her real life dolly as a way to become an adult.

I’m not attempting to create “socially, morally, sexually conservative households where they don’t exist.” I’m attempting to say that if teenage pregnancies are as big a problem as we keep saying that we are, then we should be using all the tools at our disposal, including one of the biggest tools, the parents. Otherwise, we’re just being hypocritical.

I understand that some families are more permissive than others– some through ignorance and some by choice. If we educated the parents about the dangers that their children faced instead of just telling the kids we may get through to them. Teenagers notoriously have the mentality that “it can’t happen to me” whereas parents are much more likely to understand their own mortality. As the statistics I provided stated– parents are the ones with the greatest influence, not teachers, and yet we as a society have tried to neutralize them or take away their parenting role.

It’s not a complete strategy by any means. I would think a complete strategy would include parents, school, and somehow de-sexualizing society. (As school is actually (in my view) an extension of the parents.) The government’s trying to implement one without the other two. And without the one that makes the most difference in a kid’s life.

I already commented on the mreits of your idea: you’re attempting to create socially, morally, sexually conservative households where they do not exist, and it won’t work. Search for middle ground instead of trying to pull the entire country into an ultra conservatice mindset, and then you might have a concept that can spread.

The only thing I can give you is that parents need to be involved. duh. but you need to realize that even of they’re involved, they might not be saying the same things to their kids as you will, and that’s fine.

Sex education is not the problem here. Your use of it as a scapegoat is unfortunate. The idea that EDUCATION is a bad, unnecessary element to life is just shocking and scary. uneducated people don’t make the world a better place. they just keep messing it up for the rest of us.

But what do I know, I’m just here to poison the well. My apologies if you’re already sick and tired of having to defend your positions.

Nope. You choose to bring up the Bible in an attempt to discredit the post by attacking the presenter. That’s not having a debate on the issues, as you claim that you’re doing. That’s trying to poison the well because you don’t have anything to say on topic.

No, I acknowledge the fact that there are multiple ways to perceive something. However, what I don’t do is say it must be that way cause the old book says so. If an argument holds merit on its own, that’s fine. But so frequently, the “ace in the hole” as it were, is “the bible said so”, which effectively cuts off any worthwhile debate. A useful tool to some, but it’s considered an utter lack of critical thinking by others.

Ah, you assume too much! As Carol (I think) said in a different thread, even fables have some value, and I would agree. The same is true for the bible, though I put it in the fable category. You can take something from every piece of literature in the entire world, and make it useful, in one way or the other.

The difference is that I acknowledge the fact that any work of literature can be utter BS. You’re religious beliefs do not allow for that leap in regards to the bible.

It depends which political, social and moral beliefs.

Political - Unless they’re very extreme it makes no difference. I have friends who are very Conservative and ones who are socialist. Makes no difference to whether I think they are good parents.

Social - as long as they taught respect for other people and to always behave politely and not hatefully - what else did you have in mind?

Moral - if they taught their children it was OK to bully, lie and cheat to get what they wanted yes I would probably think they were bad parents. However, there are a lot of moral grey issues and I think the parents’ specific values here are less important than their ability to spend time talking with their children and really understanding where they are coming from. Better an involved parent with slightly dodgy morals than an upright one who compleletely neglects their children.