Students obstacles outside of the classroom

Students are faced with a number of obstacles in and out of the classroom from bullying to teen pregnancy and as teachers it is important to be able to help the students through the difficult times.  Teen pregnancy has been on the rise and it is important that teachers do their best to educate the students.  Each school can decided whether they will have a sex education class and whether they will teach a comprehensive sex education model or the abstinence-only program.  The federal government will only fund abstinence-only models even though surveys have shown that more than 90% of middle and high school students and parents think they should be taught the comprehensive sex education model.  Personally I think that the abstinence-only program should be taught first and have the most emphasis on it but students also need to be educated.  I found an article about a teacher from a small town in Kansas who teaches family consumer sciences to high school students her name is Megan Clark.  The article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/fashion/10TEEN.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 She uses shows like 16 and pregnant to keep the students interested and to show them how difficult living in that situation will be.   By using a show that the students all watch and know about to teach valuable life lessons and skills is something that is very important.  Students like to be able to relate to what is being taught so by using this show that the students are informed about they can relate to what is being taught without actually having to be in the situation themselves.  A lot of people criticize the shows and say they glorify teen pregnancy.  I understand why some people would think that because the girls and boys on the show are famous but it also does a great job showing the struggles they face every day.  I think that there will be some students who think being on these shows would be cool but I also think that if teachers, peers or parents all had open judgment free discussions about exactly what it would mean to be pregnant at 16 the shows are harmless.  I think that using materials that students are familiar with gets them interested and helps them to learn more.