What do you think of this controversial article?

Question

In a lot of ways I agree with this. In most ways actually.

I'd like to hear other opinions and maybe also find some people who agree with me and the article.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-mathewes-green092002.asp

Answer 1

There is a couple of basic problems with the very premise of this article.  The first is that the article seems to imply that if teenagers marry first they will be able to shoulder the responsibility of marriage and it sites history as proof.  The problem with this is, this isn't the 1600's anymore.   This isn't even the 1950's anymore, although teen pregnancy was very much frowned upon even in the 1950's.  In today's world people need to hold more skills than typing at a typewriter or working on old style cars.  In order to get good jobs, they need to have extensive training.  In order to get that extensive training they need to get a good education.   In order to get a good education they need to stay in school longer than age 16.  

The second problem is that the article seems to imply that if we simply teach teenagers responsiblity, they will be able to handle it.  And once again it sites history as proof. That's scientifically not true.   Study after study on the brains of adolescents proves that teenagers are lacking, biologically, in the ability to control impulses, act against the group, etc. etc.   They are biologically not capable of being mature, with a very few exceptions to the general rule.   Now in history, you had entire clans of people that raised a couple of children.   You often had mothers and grandmothers raising the children along with the teenagers.   Back then, the mothers and grandmothers didn't have anything else to do with their lives.   The teen mothers even back then would likely have not been successful at all had it not been for the fact that their parent's raised the kids as much as they did.   By saying that teenagers should be allowed to have kids the article is thereby saying that those teenagers parents and grandparents should have to be burdened by the teenagers choices, despite the fact that in today's society there are plenty of other options for aging women.  

They also address the problem of divorce and attribute it to getting married older.   The problem with that is, that yes, while many marriages back in the day didn't end in divorce, it wasn't necessarly because the married couple didn't want it too.  There were many unhappy couples who just lived their lives in misery and regret.  That's something everyone wants for their kids...note the sarcasm there.  

The statistics for teen parents today are sobering.  They tend to raise their kids well below the poverty line.  Their children are far more likely to do poorly in school, have trouble with the law, and end up teen parents themselves.   In order to get back to the teen parenthood of old, we would have to go through multiple generations of evolution.  Which means we would have multiple generations of lost children who didn't recieve proper care, didn't recieve proper education, etc.  And with that in mind, it's very unlikely that we would ever get to the point of having stable teen parenting situations as the majority.

Societies in history that encouraged teen pregnancy and marriage were ones that didn't have much in the way of advancement, industry, or h**l even life expectancy.  Once those things started to grow, teen pregnancy became less than ideal, because in comparision that's what it is, less than ideal.   By suggesting that we go back to those times, it is suggesting that we evolve backwards.  That we decrease our industry (no education, no advancement in industry), we decrease our education (it's very hard for mother's and father's to raise a family and get an education at the same time) and thereby we decrease our life expectancy.  That's absurd and against human nature.

Answer 2

If the world were still in a place where a man got a year off of work once he got married so he could settle in and could provide a living income straight out of high school then that would work great. I love the points she makes in this article.

Answer 3

So basically if teens get married first and THEN have a baby it's okay? Yeah right. Marriage does NOT fix everything and does not mean your life will be perfect.

I think the person that wrote that article needs to visit the pregnancy section of Y!A and see how troubling teen pregnancy is. Don't get me wrong, I know there are those teens that are fully capable and responsible for taking care of a baby. Unfortunately that is not ALWAYS the case.

Answer 4

Are you nuts? We are not needing to stock the Earth with humans any longer. We don't need farm hands any longer. Kids are not prepared to raise children. Heck, most people in my generation aren't either. Just because your bodies are capable of reproducing, does not mean you should!!!  I think that the writer is selfish wanting great grand-kids at a young age.  There is enough divorce in this world. We don't need more!