Charlie, I am beginning to doubt the whole pact thing as well, but no matter what, it is still alarming that 17 girls of that age are pregnant.
Pete, I did not mean to imply that this is a natural consequence of a Catholic upbringing. It is, however a natural consequence of bad or lazy parenting. The problem is too many parents leave it up to schools to educate their children about sex, and then act horrified when they get pregnant or an STD, as if the school’s sex ed program is to blame – either it taught them that sex was good, or it didn’t teach them enough. There has to be parental education that goes hand in hand with the school’s education. And sex is, at least in our school district, is not just about the act of sex. It’s about consequences of sex, the detriments of having sex before they are emotionally ready for it and the dangers of unprotected sex. I think these are important things for kids to know, but I also think that parents have to hammer home these points and take care to raise their children to be confident young adults with self respect and good decision making skills. In other words, not the kind of kids who would be swayed by pop culture heroes or some deep seated need for unconditional love to engage in immoral behavior that could affect the rest of their lives.
Yes, some girls will go out and get pregnant after seeing Juno, I suppose. But you can’t blame the movie. If a girl is that influenced by a movie that she wants to have a baby because of it, there is something going on there is much deeper than wanting to emulate a fictional teenager.
