My brother teaches at an inner-city middle school and his 8th graders are currently in the throes of their "reproductive system" unit. One thing the students are doing is caring for baby dolls or flour sack babies in order to simulate parenthood - they have to carry them, feed them, nap them, and "basically parent them for an entire week." He says it's really gratifying (and cute!) to see these normally tough kids become protective and parental. "They're taking it so seriously! They're all bugging out about how much work it is to take care of a baby."
He also told me that one teacher showed the old Molly Ringwald movie For Keeps - about a teen couple that has a baby and how their lives change drastically as a result. He reports that the kids "are more freaked out about what life looked like in the 80s than they are about the idea of becoming teen parents." Ha! Note to 8th graders: Big hair isn't forever. A baby is.
So what are the good teen pregnancy movies? Juno was obviously a critical success and while we all love snappy dialogue, we can certainly debate the realism of the whole adoption storyline (a scant 3% of teen pregnancies end in adoption). Lots of people liked Saved! a few years back (unfortunately we don't have any numbers on how many girls get pregnant after offering up their virginity as a way to "save" their gay boyfriends...). My personal fave, though, was Fast Times at Ridgemont High (I know, I'm ancient) in which Stacy has sex with Damone in the pool house, gets pregnant, has an abortion, the world doesn't stop rotating on its axis, and she eventually ends up sweet and happy with nerdy virgin Mark "Rat" Ratner - proving that just because you've said 'yes' in the past doesn't mean you can't say 'no' in the future.
Not that I would show Fast Times in a classroom - there are much better educational materials at the Campaign Store. In fact, I'm sending my brother a copy of Too Young right now.
Fast Times? Third best movie of all time.
Very funny post. I guess today's kids would be scared of some of Molly Ringwald's outfits (even though I love those movies). Go brat pack!
Is there any type of video version of your materials that are entertaining and educational? Or just the typical booklets etc?
hi, im new to this blog thing, but ive seen the ads for teen pregnacies, and i to was one, i had 3 kids before i was 21. im sad cuz i didnt finish high school, and now if i want a job its minimum wage and its horrible. if there was an organization out there when i was 16 i might have been able to make the decision not to get pregnant. every time one of my kids were 6 months old my husband left me for younger girls, ones that had no responsiblity. im so happy you all are out there, i would love to see the teen rates drop. so thank you all so much for caring about our future. oh yeah im only 22 now and my oldest is 4 :(
We do have a vault-full of typical booklets and also some videos that are entertaining and educational (he said humbly). Check 'em out here...
https://www.teenpregnancy.org/store/Category.asp?categoryId=23