Peer Temptation and Social Pressure

 As teenagers mature, they begin to physically and emotionally explore their sexuality. 

It is important for teachers to study strategies that improve the safety of all students. 

There is an ongoing debate as to the curriculum guidelines for sex education and/or family life education in the United States of America. These types of program recognize the central role parents play in their children's education. Most programs require a parent signature for their children to participate. 

More federal dollars are appropriated to abstinence-only programs. Decisions as to what should be included in the curriculum is localized and most often decided by a combination of parent advocacy groups, school boards, and the local school district (McNergney & McNergney, 2004). 

Teenagers associate sex with the freedom and sophistication of being an adult (Johnson, Musical Hall, Gollnick, & Dupuis, 2005). They get mixed messages from their peers, parents, religious representatives, and the media. One minute sex is glamorous and the next, it is sinful. Girls link sex with acceptance and being loved, while the boys link it ti status and power (Johnson et al.). 

Good News! Statistics indicate that fewer teens are choosing to have sex early and those that do are being more responsible.

Poverty is also a factor in teenage pregnancy. Approximately 83% of teen mothers are from the poverty level socio-economically (Johnson et al.).

However, teens seem to be more responsible about their sexual lives. School programs and health clinics that offer counseling and services can be given credit for this shift. 

According to Webb, "sexual orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual, or affectional attraction toward another human being" (Webb et al, 2007, p. 265). 

Teenagers are faced with many important decisions regarding their sexuality as they mature into young adults. Sex education and family life education can help teens be informed and make better personal decisions for their future.

Several parents and educators believe that teaching abstinence to teenage students is the best approach to teaching sexual education. Is teaching abstinence the best method of sex education for teenagers? Why or why not? Share your answer from a moral and academic point of view 😃

Have a nice Day

Stop the Drop and Enroll

How can we designed a plan to minimize school drop-out rates and increase the student success rate for at-risk youth?

Most states and school districts define the term dropout as "a student that leaves school for any reason before graduation or completion of a program of study without transferring to another school or institution" (Webb, Metha, & Jordon, 2007, p. 253). 

For these students, the ramifications of their decision to leave school are momentous. For example, throughout their lifetime, students who decide to drop out of high school will earn an estimated $370,000 less than their friends that graduate (Webb et al.). 

The statistics indicate that as many as 17% of dropouts find themselves in poverty (Webb et al.), 60% of prison inmates are dropouts, and 79% of teen parents become dropouts, (Morrison, 2003). 

In order to combat this dismal future, it is essential for educators to identify those students that are most at risk for making the decision to drop out of school.

We need to design preventative and intervention strategies that may stop students from dropping out from school.

Because the dropout issue is so serious, punitive and/ or disincentive policies have also been implemented in some states. The most controversial of these policies are the no pass, no drive laws that do exactly what they state. Those students that drop out of school or are chronically truant are subject to having their drivers' licenses revoked.

Ultimately, it is caring teachers and parents that can have the most impact on students. 

Throughout the last twenty years, while the percentage varies slightly, about 5% of students drop out of high school each year (Johnson et al., 2005). Hispanics are twice as likely as African Americans to drop out of school and 4 times more likely than Caucasians (Webb et al., 2007). 

The goal for all these strategies is to keep at-risk students in school so they can have a chance at a positive and happy future. 

Professional Boundaries

Teachers must be aware of the Code of Conduct for Teachers and the Code of Ethics of the Education Profession. I have been teaching for 25 years and I still meet some teachers you are not aware of these codes.

Indeed teachers have a significant impact on students' lives, so they must not cross the line of professional boundaries and ignore the law pertaining to teacher contact with students. 

Teachers must be familiar with the Code of Ethics for Educators because the Code of Ethics for Educators gives important guidelines to teachers.

Teachers must not cross the line of professional boundaries and influence the lives of their students in a negative and unacceptable way.

Teachers must adopt a professional approach with all their students and they must respect specific professional boundaries for their own safety and the safety of their students.

The End of the Quintile

 Well it is Sunday. Opened my eyes and wondered what day it is. Then I remembered! 

How I ended the first quintile in school with a good laugh! And since I like to share my moments of laughter, this is what happened...😅😅 My answer to an email had the three of us rolling in the aisles. 

This is what can happen to teachers when they read an email at 7 a.m. in their classroom at the end of the school quintile and they decide to answer it very early in the morning. 

I am the kind of person who wakes up everyday at 5 a.m. YES, in the morning! Indeed it is very early! And Franz Kafka was right when he wrote in his book that "this getting up early makes a man quite idiotic"😅

My email would be the perfect joke for a stand up comedian! He or she will have the audience rolling in the aisles.

I arrived in my classroom at 7 a.m. and I opened my email box. I received an invitation for lunch and the different times were written in military time. I read 1400 for 1400 CFA. YES! It happened to me. 

Since 1400 was not written 14:00, I thought that our friends were asking us to chip in, which is totally okay for me! I know things can get expensive. We can have a party and ask our guests to bring additional food or cash.

I replied to the email confirming that I will bring 1400 CFA with me on the day of the party. 

My friend replied, "NO MONEY" "It's Time"... This is when I only realized that our friend was not asking for money, but he was asking us to come at 1400, meaning 2 p.m. 

Indeed why do we use an a.m. p.m. 12 hour time rather than the 24 hour military time? 

This what happens when you speak 5 languages.

I speak five languages and one of them is Arabic. I have only used the 12-hour clock in Arabic. Most countries use a 24-hour clock (which is known in the U.S. as military time) instead of the 12-hour clock. Since he has written 1400 without using the colon ":", I have read it 1400 CFA 😂

I write 14:00 using a colon. Therefore, I was confused when I had read 1400 without the colon. 

Indeed humor is culture specific, meaning that most jokes tend to be funny only among people who share experiences in that culture. But I hope that most us will consider this funny experience as a cosmopolitan one. 

Have a great Sunday 💓