Appaling picture of teenage America

[Hydey]

Having sex post puberty should not be a problem as long as condoms are in use.

As for drug use, the soft stuff is of not real harm but when they hit the big time its a real problem.

Obviously in Australia all kids are like mine and will remain virgins until marriage and never ever touch drink or drugs.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I have to agree with the statements that there ARE good high schools. Where most people haven't had anything close to 18 sexual partners by the end of high school. My high school didn't seem to have a sexual orgy-like problem. Most people had perhaps 2-5 partners until 18. Of course you had a few that screwed everything that moved, but were very rare.

Alcohol was widespread, but pot wasn't as much.

[Saint Marcus]

Well, I go to a rich surburban public high school, and about half school does pot, nearly everyone drinks beer, sex is common.... And as far as bullying, Columbine High School was in another rich, suburban high school.

Exactly, and Conyers was also a middle class white school. These aren't schools in the Bronx we're talking about, but schools in "respected" middle to upper-middle class (and usually white) neighbourhoods.

I think the current problems plauging schools are nearly universal.

I disagree.

Far be it for me to judge this, but it's obvious it's not isolated. That doesn't mean it goes on in every single school in the US though, but I do fear this is the case in the mayority in some degree.

I'm going to have to save a copy of this thread. That way, next time one of the gun control threads gets going, and someone asks me "what cultural differences", I can say, "ones like this".

The cultural difference you're refering to is how teenagers behave in various countries (for whatever reasons), or am I reading you wrong?

As much as I hate to say it, Mark is for the most part correct.

This isn't a troll-thread. I only wish it was. I have too many ties to the country to troll about matters like this.
Though I understand your personal dislike/distrust of me

[Zealot]

I really think that this problem is related with the education parents provide to their children at home.

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Again, the Dutch trying to steal credit from the U.S.

WE'RE the ones who made the video about our crappy teens. That's right!

[DinoDoc]

Rampant Drugs, Alcohol, & Sex? My childhood was so sheltered.

[Hydey]

No No I think we all agree that the US is the king of crappy teens

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Hydey
No No I think we all agree that the US is the king of crappy teens

You're American then?

[Sikander]

As others have stated here, and I have said on other threads dealing with the U.S., there are a number of cultures here, which have statistical variances as great or greater than most European countries have measured against their neighbors. The U.S. population is also very mobile, which tends to concentrate the population by just about anything you care to name, race, culture, age, occupations, tastes etc. This tends to concentrate certain types of problems very effectively. Take one problem, murder, where about half of all the murders in the U.S. occur in a broadly defined population which is about 5% of the U.S. population.

If I had to pick one problem in particular which I think tends to have a deliterious effect on teenage psyches, my choice would be lack of parenting. This comes from several sources, the two biggest being both parents working (and hence the latchkey kids like those in the documentary), and the implosion of the family (especially African American families).

A host of other reasons play their part in this as well, not the least of which is that children raised in the 1970s (the original abandoned and troubled generation in this sequence) often have no idea what proper parenting looks like, even if they haven't bought into their parents groovy do your own thing hippy lifestyle in other ways. And it isn't merely a lack of information which keeps these parents from being good parents. Many of them are damaged by their own childhoods, and currently incapable of the empathy required to meet their childrens' needs. They have a tendency to just check out when things get tough, which was their means of coping with their own abandonment. Unfortunately it also perpetuates the problem onto another generation, for it is itself a form of abandonment.

As Natan pointed out, there is some hope. I have seen a lot of my peers purposefully make a serious effort to be the kind of parents that their children need, and that their parents were not. I think the trend is for better mental health, and we will see this snowball as the generational torch is passed on.

[Alexander's Horse]

My first question is, what kind of slum does Jon Miller live in?

Aside from that, its well known that teenagers exagerate their sexual knowledge/activity and drug use. I frankly find it very hard to believe a lot of what has been claimed. I'd discount a lot of it by a factor of 10.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Aside from that, its well known that teenagers exagerate their sexual knowledge/activity and drug use. I frankly find it very hard to believe a lot of what has been claimed. I'd discount a lot of it by a factor of 10.

Denial.

Typical behavior for a father without a child in his or her teens.

[Alexander's Horse]

Its not denial - though I plan to be fully in denial when those years come along

Its a well known fact that teenagers exagerate hugely when asked questions about these subjects.

[Dr Strangelove]

The most recent figures I've seen from a medical source stated that less than 10% of teens 13 and under had had sex. Less than 45% of teens 15 and under had had sex, so currently most young adults don't have their first sexual encounter until they're 16 or older.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Its a well known fact that teenagers exagerate hugely when asked questions about these subjects.

True, but even so, the real figures are still really high.

Almost everyone I know has tried marijuana at least once, and a good number of them are regular users, and not one of their parents even suspect it. Or they may, but are in denial.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Asher

Almost everyone I know

Well that's a very scientific survey