Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy found that intense communitywide programs that include churches, schools, clinics, and the media can significantly reduce teen pregnancy. It takes a strong unified village to raise a child. Proficiency tests are essential, but they are not enough. We need programs to encourage youths to pass the proficiency tests of achievement and to pass the reality tests of staying alive and healthy. Sex, drugs, and violence are threatening our children's education and lives and razing our villages.
Denial promotes paralysis.
For some, tomorrow might be too late. I wonder where our next wake-up call will come from. Stephen R. Sroka, a 1996 inductee in the National Teachers Hall of Fame, is a retired teacher from the Cleveland Public Schools. He is an adjunct assistant professor at the School of Medicine, Center for Adolescent Health at Case Western Reserve University, an adjunct professor at Cleveland State University, and president of Health Education Consultants. Copyright 2001, National School Boards Association.