14. April 2010 by student.

Currently about one million teenagers become pregnant each year in the United States, and more than 3/4 of them are unintentional. Around 30% of the pregnancies result with abortions, and 59 percent result in live birth (the other 14% end in miscarriage.) Sex education classes are offered as early as elementary school, but I feel that at that time, the students are too young to fully comprehend what it all means. A lot of television networks have joined the fight against teen pregnancy by airing certain shows such as MTV’s 16 and Pregnant, and ABC Family’s True Life of the American Teenager.16 and Pregnant is a show that follows a couple 16 year old girls who have become pregnant and shows all of the intricacies and issues that come along with being pregnant at such a young age. It shows how expensive all of the necessities are and how hard it is to complete education and maintain relationships. Hopefully this show scares all young girls and encourages them to pursue safe-sex or even abstinence.Secret Life of the American Teenager is a similar show but is fictional. It shows a story about a girl who is in the band and during band camp has an irresponsible night with a boy which leads to her becoming pregnant. It shows how all of her friendships and relationships with family members become strained and how the relationship between the girl and the babies father struggle to find common ground.These shows are all a great way to educate and try to prevent the staggering number of teen pregnancy.

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14. April 2010 by student.

It’s finals week. There are huge life altering tests coming on fast, papers due, projects to finish, work schedules to maintain, friends to hang out with, and families to deal with. This endless overload can actually adversely effect your health.

Many of my friends are struggling with college life much more than they expected. The end of semester work load is too much to handle and there sometimes seems to be no end in sight. A few people that I know stress themselves out to the point that they get sick, can’t sleep, can’t eat, and eventually their bodies and minds just shut down. Stress is normal and perfectly healthy and your body is designed to deal with it and react to it. Stress can, however, become dangerous to someone when they experience continuous challenges without relief. This constant stress can be enough to cause the condition known as distress, which can lead to physical symptoms such as headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, and sleeping problems. At times people will turn to alcohol, drugs, or tobacco to try and relieve their stress which can also be harmful to the body.

·      43% of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.

·      75-90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints.

·      The Occupational Safety and Health Administration declared stress a hazard of the workplace. Stress costs American industry more than $300 billion annually.

·      The lifetime prevalence of an emotional disorder is more than 50%, often due to chronic, untreated stress reactions.

There are a few simple ways to keep yourself in check and manage your stress levels so your body doesn’t become thrown out of balance due to a stress overload.

1.     Keep a positive attitude

2.     Accept that there are events that you cannot control.

3.     Become assertive instead of aggressive, defensive, or passive.

4.     Exercising regularly can help your body to relax, as well as help you sleep better at night.

Stress can be a very difficult, but necessary evil. It can be enough to ruin your week but just looking ahead and keeping in mind that at some point, it will be over can help you deal with it.

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14. April 2010 by Mr. Andoscia.

All blogs and comments have been graded up to this point.  Don’t start hammering out sloppy stuff just because we are down to the last couple of weeks.  My standards rise as the semester goes along.  Most importantly, have fun.  This is meant to be a two way medium.

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14. April 2010 by student.

Just recently, Poland experienced what could possily be one of the the most devastating tragedies ever. On April 10, 2010, a plane carrying passengers to the site of a Soviet massacre of Polish officers in World War II crashed in western Russia, killing everyone on board. Of these passengers was Poland’s President, Lech Kaczynski, among dozens of other political and military officials. And in a eerie twist, it happened at the moment that Russia and Poland were beginning to come to terms with the killing of more than 20,000 members of Poland’s elite officer corps in the same place 70 years ago. Russian officials state that air traffic controllers ordered the crew of the plane to not land and recommended a reroute to another airport. But the plane continued a descent that killed a total of 97 people.

Russian aviation experts are suggesting that the tragedy was the fault of Polish crew members who couldn’t speak Russian – or even that President Lech Kaczynski was himself to blame by forcing his plane to land in bad weather. “VIP Syndrome” is the phrase used to describe the way impatient politicians sometimes order pilots to take dangerous decisions. Other accusations believe that the plane was old and outdated.

This wouldn’t be the first of drastic airborne disasters. Other catastrophe’s include Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in 1959, Lynyrd Skynyrd and band in 1977, and John Denver in 1997. All for various reasons and unfortunate mishaps.

Under Poland’s Constitution, the leader of the lower house of Parliament, now acting president, has 14 days to announce new elections, which must then take place within 60 days.

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14. April 2010 by student.

Underage drinking is a growing threat among teens throughout our country,whether they accept the fact or not. Many young adults, under the age of 21, often as young as middle school students, look at today’s movie stars and celebrities and see them consuming alcohol and think its cool and alright to copy. Many kids go out to parties where alcohol is readily available to them, and become accustomed to drinking every weekend with their friends as a means of fun and entertainment. Even though we often picture an alcoholic as an older individual, washed up and seemingly without a future, alcoholism is just as serious of a threat to young individuals. As a person who group up with an alcoholic family member and a longtime friend whose life has spiraled out of control because of alcohol, I recognise the true dangers of alcohol and its grasp. Besides the longtime possibility of alcoholism, there is always the threat of alcohol related accidents killing our young generations. There are already many programs in place to promote alcohol awareness among the young, but more must always be done to combat this issue. We must take matters into each of our hands and spread the word about the true dangers of alcohol consumption.

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14. April 2010 by student.

High School and Middle School teachers have not been teaching students to learn anything more than standardized tests for a long time. Instead of teaching students how to apply the knowledge they learn, the teachers are more worried about getting more money. In the broken school system, the teachers who pass the most students on the FCAT or any other standardized test, get more money. So if your’e a great teacher, who teaches the students what they should be learning, and less kids pass the FCAT, you get less money than an average teacher who just teaches the test. The problem is that this drives the really good teachers into mediocracy, since most people would like to get raises at there jobs. Also, if a straight “A” student is bad at tests, he/she might be held back a grade due to the FCAT, which is ridiculous.

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14. April 2010 by student.

The bad economy has taken a toll on many people and businesses. The economy not only hurts our job security and money, but it can also have unrealized consequences. The number of homeless people in the US has skyrocketed in many cities. Home foreclosures, due to the economy, have increased which has lead to more homeless people as well. And if you cant afford an apartment or a place to live after your house gets foreclosed on, your screwed. Unless the cities around the US provide homeless shelters or another form of living for people who don’t have anywhere to go, our streets will soon be overrun with people looking for work and places to stay. The economy needs to turn around soon or else we will be looking at a very bad unintended social problem.

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14. April 2010 by student.

Since the 1990’s, about 120,000 adoptions take place in the United States every year. That means that each year, 120,000 sets of foster parents have to make the decision of whether or not to tell their child they were adopted, and if so, when the right time to tell them may be. Research shows that one out of every three adoptions is a closed adoption, meaning that the adopted child has absolutely no contact with their birth parents. This leaves the majority of adopted children left wondering why their birth parents did not want them. Maybe their mother was too busy, too young, not mature enough to care for a child, or too poor to take care of another human being. Whatever the reason, these children are most likely stuck thinking that they were not good enough for their real parents, although that is doubtfully the case. It is unfair that children in closed adoptions are never legally allowed to track down their birth parents, aside from through extensive work with an agency. The least a birth parent can do is give their baby the right to know who they are and who they came from.

            Closed adoptions take place when a baby’s birth parents decide not to have any contact with their newborn child, along with its adoptive family, once it has been given up for adoption. In effect, the completed process is kept confidential, as is the birth parent’s identity. The birth parents are also given the choice of whether or not they would like to receive updates on the child. These updates can be in the form of photos or letters. When a closed adoption occurs, the adoptive child is given no information whatsoever about who their birth parents or biological relatives are, not to mention why they were initially put up for adoption. In these occurrences, it is surely possible that the adopted child will have emotional and psychological problems. When children do not know, or do not have the capacity to understand why they were put up for adoption, they are often left imagining that they were the problem; something is wrong with them or they are not good enough for the biological parents to want to keep them. Since the birth family appears as a huge mystery in the child’s eyes, they commonly start to create their own imprecise fantasy about who they are and who they came from. The child might imagine that they biologically come from wealthy and famous parents, or they might assume that their birth parents are truly horrible people. Generally, neither case is true. If someone is putting their child up for adoption, it is generally due to certain conditions that would threaten the well-being of the child, should it live with the birth parents. If the child decides to search for their biological family, it may come as a shock to both the adoptive and biological family, creating anxiety in both households. The adoptive family may feel disappointed that their child is searching for their biological family, feeling like they did not completely fulfill the needs and wants of the child. Not only is a closed adoption hard on the adopted child and their foster family, it’s also hard on their biological parents. They commonly struggle with knowing that they brought a young one into the world and are legally unable to have any communication with it. Additionally, the birth mother does not know if her child is living in a happy, safe, and loving environment. An open adoption allows them to take part in the child’s life as much as the adoptive parents determine. Sometimes, this can be shown through a photo each year and other times it is actual outings. This is a very small reward to give someone who is giving you their child. A closed adoption does not allow this at all whereas with an open adoption the child will at least know who his birth parents are and may be able to decide when he is older if he wants to know them or not.

            An open adoption, in which the birth parents stay in touch with the adoptive parents via phone calls, letters, and visits, seems to be a much more logical choice when it comes to benefitting the adopted child. In common situations, open adoption is the most ideal method because both the birth and adoptive parents are known to the child and involved in his or her life. This means the child grows up knowing who his biological parents are and why he was given up for adoption. In the most fortunate cases, a child may have two sets of parents who love and adore him. In the most unfortunate cases, whether the parent is unsuited to raise a child or does not want to raise him, the child will still have a set of adoptive parents who love and care for him, in addition to knowing how lucky he is to be living in a sturdy environment. Research shows that open adoption is healthier for adopted kids because they are not left wondering who their parents are or what they are like.

            Closed adoptions should be banned for the reason that adopted children should have the right to know who their birth parents are, if they please. Even if the birth parents choose not to be involved in the child’s life, it makes the situation tremendously easier when and if the birth child decides to look for them. Millions of adults are on the search for their birth parents. Some will succeed and some will fail. Some will be ecstatic and some will be heartbroken. Some will meet dozens of new family members and some will meet a dead end. If closed adoptions can be stopped, thousands of people will be spared from all the negative emotions and battles that can come with closed adoptions. Closed adoptions close doors. It’s time America opens them.

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14. April 2010 by student.

            Between the ages of ten and twenty-four months, babies become extremely interested in communicating their specific wants, needs and desires. However, most lack the ability or fine motor coordination to verbalize the words. In order to fill the gap until language skills develop, research indicates that babies can use symbolic gesturing. These gestures provide “an easier symbolic equivalent in the form of simple physical actions that can be used to represent objects and events.” These gestures are more complex than the performative gestures (e.g reaching for an object) that a younger infant would use, but not as sophisticated as the pantomimes that an older child might use to communicate.

            Studies show that these gestures or baby signs provide many benefits to both parent and child. One of the most significant is an increase in verbal language abilities. According to research, babies who use gestures not only speak sooner than their non-signing peers, but also appear to have a greater vocabulary. In addition, symbolic gesturing alleviates a great deal of frustration for both the parent and child and allows a parent to witness more of his/her child’s cognitive development. Finally, gesturing provides a springboard for long term intellectual growth and development that can last well into the elementary school years.

            The question as to why symbolic gesturing increases language development has several answers. Signing, which allows a child to engage in a back and forth dialogue of sorts, helps to demonstrate some very important language lessons; gesturing also provides for elevated social interaction between parent and child resulting in an opportunity for increased joint attention episodes; from a physiological standpoint, symbolic gesturing strengthens the brain cells that promote language development. As mentioned above, symbolic gesturing provides a starting place for the rules of communication. Furthermore, children learn that performing a sign gives them the power to initiate a “conversation” and elicit a response from a parent or caregiver. They learn that language provides a way to express needs and desires and more importantly, to have those needs and desires met. Ultimately, they see that communication is a two-way street.

            Symbolic gesturing also allows for increased social interaction, therefore creating more joint attention episodes. These joint attention episodes are periods of time where a child and a caregiver are engaging in dialogue or observation of a particular object or event. Gesturing gives the child an opportunity to initiate these episodes, allowing him/her the opportunity to choose topics of interest that may better hold his/her focus and attention.

            Parents who encourage symbolic gesturing are teaching their child the importance of language, which encourage that child to explore other forms of communication, including speech. “Just as learning to crawl increases rather than decreases a child’s motivation to walk, use of gestures increases rather than decreases the child’s motivation to talk,” said Linda Acredolo, who we will call a symbolic gesture genius. Finally, the use of baby signs helps a child to build connections between the millions of brain cells that promote speech. Along with the increased verbal ability, signing alleviates a great deal of the frustration experienced during the toddler stage by providing baby with the means to communicate. Research shows that children who are able to communicate their needs are significantly less likely to throw tantrums and cry. On the flip side, the caregiver is better able to understand and interpret the child’s needs, resulting in less frustration on his/her part, as well. Signing also gives the parent more insight into their child’s thoughts, observations, feelings and level of understanding regarding the world. The outcome is typically a more content child and a more enjoyable parenting experience. Over time, symbolic gesturing declines and the gestures that babies once used begins to take on more of a complementary role in communication. In summary, symbolic gesturing serves to stimulate increased interactions between parent and child.

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14. April 2010 by student.

When most people hear the word addiction, they immediately picture something drug and/or alcohol related, quite rarely do they recognize the horror of gambling addictions. Gambling is a growing concern for people throughout not only the country, but the world, yet it is not as recognized as its cousins alcoholism and drug addiction. One of the scariest parts of gabling addictions is that they often sneak up on their victims and consume all aspects of their life. According to HelpGuide.org, “Compulsive gamblers can’t control the impulse to gamble, even when they know their gambling is hurting themselves or their loved ones”. How, compared to addictions such as alcohol and drugs, can this even be considered any less of a threat to our nation as a whole? With this addiction, the gambler does not have the capacity to reach their limit. All too often these individuals limit ends up being rock bottom, once they have lost all that they have worked for. One of the worst things that can happen to a compulsive gambler is hitting it big with the jackpot. This often only fuels their gabling and betting, digging them further into the pit of addiction. The best thing for any compulsive gambler to do is to get help as soon as there is a sign of a problem, this however is a rare occurrence, seeing as most don’t feel they have a problem to begin with. I know that without a doubt there are steps being taken by the American government to combat this growing problem, but it seems that not enough may be going on. This may be in part to the extreme rate of growth we are witnessing with this tragedy. The best step we as a society can take is to spread awareness of this problem and make the public more aware of the dangers that lie within gambling. It makes very little sense for an individual to work day in and day out to provide for their family and themselves, just to put his or her hard earned money into some machine in hopes of making it big. We as a nation must make this huge step together and get the gears turning on public awareness of this always growing problem.

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