Teenage Pregnancy in Tennessee

I have a good friend who lives in Jackson Tennessee named Shelby. Shelby regularly talks to me about how many of her friends and people she knows happen to have kids. I’m still thrown back every time she brings this up because most of these teens having children are under the age of eighteen, not married and in high school. The educational system in Tennessee primarily focuses on pregnancy prevention through the teaching of abstinence, which obviously isn’t working. Shelby will often tell me “I think its pretty normal” and “ not really a big deal.” Personally I highly disagree and think that it’s a major social issue. I think this because I believe in most situations; a teenager doesn’t have the responsibility and life stability to fully take care of a child to the full extent that he or she deserves. To do a study on this social issue, I would approach it from the perspective of a Structural Functionalist. A functionalist looks at society as a bunch of interrelated parts or structures. Each of these parts serves a purpose in forming society and helping it function correctly. When an issue arises in society, a functionalist would look at it as a flaw in one of these structures and to fix the issue, that structure must be fixed. A functionalist would look at this problem of Teenage Pregnancy as a flaw in the structures of society, such as the education system, that is not functioning correctly.

            I believe that there is a major flaw in the educational system of Tennessee.  In 2005 teenage pregnancy rate ranked Tennessee as the 9^th highest teenage birthrate out of the 50 states (Texas was 1^st, Utah 45^th) (Guttmacher 2006). It has become a problem to the point where it is socialy “normal” to have a child in high school. Looking at this from a functionalist perspective, I would say that something within the educational system needs to change. It has almost become a social norm among teenagers in Tennessee to have a child. It doesn’t appear that proper education is being taken to teach these students the negative sanctions of having a child at such a young age. The norms of the teens seem to begin to clash with those of the adult in Tennessee. The adult’s norm suggests that it is right to have teens abstinent until marriage. The teen’s norm suggests that having a child while in high school isn’t such a bad thing. This clash in norms leads to a flaw in their society. To properly fix this I believe that action must be taken within the educational system to teach the teens the negative sanctions of having a child. This should change the teen’s view on teenage pregnancy and hopefully fix the clash between the norms of teens and adults. This would lead to society functioning as normal once again. Do you think that this is an appropriate approach at this social issue? Do you believe that this is even an issue that needs to be fixed? How do you suggest it should be fixed?

Here is a video about teenage pregnancy in Tennessee. It is a high school where 11% of the student body is either pregnant or has a child. What do you think should be done?

 References:
Guttmacher, . "USTPtrends." Guttmacher: 2006. 14 of 26. Print. <http://www.guttmacher.org/sections/pregnancy.php?scope=U.S. specific>.

Many. "Structural Functionalism." Online: Wikipedia , 2011. Web. 4 Oct 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_functionalism>.

"Teenage Pregnacy." Personal Interview by Erik Hughes. 9/25/11.