Lessons in Love/ Teen Education - 5/06

[Smartmarriages]

- LESSONS IN LOVE 
- PREGNANCY PAUSE 

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Tah dah! Two big hits in one day!

- LESSONS IN LOVE 
Denise Kersten Wills
JUNE 2007, Washingtonian

I just got my mail and it included the June issue of Washingtonian Magazine
with a GREAT article: "Lessons in Love: Some couples are learning what makes
marriage work - before the wedding"  It's part of the Washingtonian June
Wedding Guide and explains what an obvious no-brainer it is for engaged
couples to take a marriage skills course.  It includes SmartMarriages.com,
PAIRS, RE, PREP, CC, and Marriage Savers all of whom are presenting training
institutes in Atlanta - with examples of couples taking the courses, quotes
and photos, and contact info.  This magazine is read by everyone in DC area
and it made my day!  I'm convinced it will result in lots more couples
understanding that there is something easy, affordable and obvious they can
do to change their odds and improve their chances of success.  - diane

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- PREGNANCY PAUSE 
By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 25, 2006

This article features Marline Pearson and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and their
new report "Making a Love Connection" and Marline's LoveU2 Program.  Both
will present numerous times at the Atlanta Smart Marriages Conference
including a keynote by Barbara and a 2-Hr MINI training by Marline on the
LoveU2 curriculum: http://www.smartmarriages.com/minis.html - diane

>     In the wake of this news, at least two "holistic" approaches to teen
> pregnancy prevention are vying for attention.
> 
>     One approach says "relationship skills" should be added to sex-education
> programs.
> 
>     Sex education "has always taught [teens] what to avoid -- and we need to
> continue that -- BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH," said Marline Pearson, co-author of a
> report for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. "[W]e need to look
> beyond the goal of managing the health risks of sex to the goal of building
> healthy relationships," said Mrs. Pearson, who wrote the report with Barbara
> Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers
> University.


Teen birthrates have fallen 13 years in a row, but the most recent decline
was so small that many observers now are worried that the downward trend
will stall or reverse itself.

    In the wake of this news, at least two "holistic" approaches to teen
pregnancy prevention are vying for attention.

    One approach says "relationship skills" should be added to sex-education
programs.

    Sex education "has always taught [teens] what to avoid -- and we need to
continue that -- BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH," said Marline Pearson, co-author of a
report for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. "[W]e need to
look beyond the goal of managing the health risks of sex to the goal of
building healthy relationships," said Mrs. Pearson, who wrote the report
with Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project
at Rutgers University.

    Another "holistic" approach that is seeking new markets, including
Washington, D.C., is psychologist Michael A. Carrera's adolescent pregnancy
prevention program.

    Mr. Carrera's approach, developed with the Children's Aid Society and
known as the CAS-Carrera model, includes sex-education classes as part of a
range of social services provided to low-income children from fifth grade
through high school. The respected program, which is replicated in 20
states, has been shown to delay sexual debut and reduce teen pregnancy among
its participants.

    "The work we're doing is a pure youth-development model," Mr. Carrera
said at a recent event by the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The
best way to discourage teen pregnancy, he said, is to "move from
fragmentation [of services] to wholeness."

    Teen childbearing is viewed as a national problem because of its links
to poverty, welfare, fatherlessness, low educational attainment, and mental
and physical health problems.

    For 13 years, Americans have heard good news about U.S. teen birthrates.

    In 1991, teen birthrates peaked with nearly 62 births per 1,000 teenage
girls and a total of nearly 532,000 births. After that, birthrates fell
every year, reaching 41 births per 1,000 teenage girls in 2004, according to
preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

    However, the 2004 birthrate was only 1 percent lower than the rate for
2003, and the number of teen births rose slightly, from 421,241 in 2003 to
422,197 in 2004.

    These figures give pause to researchers like Jennifer Manlove at Child
Trends Inc.

  "Is this just a slight stabilization before future declines, or are we on
the brink of new increases in teen birthrates?" she asked.

    The increases in teen births occurred among those younger than 15, teens
18 and 19, and among Hispanic girls, Child Trends said in its latest "Facts
At a Glance" report on birth trends.

    In their new report, "Making a Love Connection," National Campaign to
Prevent Teen Pregnancy board members William Galston and Stephen Goldsmith
said it's time to recognize teens' hunger for relationship skills.

    Information about developing healthy relationships "has been the missing
ingredient" in teen pregnancy prevention programs, they wrote in the
report's introduction. "Teens hear about biology and body parts," but are
"hardly ever told how to achieve responsible and respectful relationships."

    In addition, they wrote, teens aren't taught that there's a "simple
formula" that can help them fulfill their goals in life. This "sequence for
success" is to "graduate from high school (at least), don't have a baby
until you are married, and don't marry during the teen years."

    Mrs. Pearson, who teaches social science in Wisconsin and has written a
relationship skills curriculum called "Love U2," says teens are eager to
hear more about love, intimacy, trust, respect, commitment and the emotional
and ethical consequences of sex.

    They already know "a messed-up love life can certainly mess up other
parts of your life," she said. They want to know how to "navigate their
relationships without prematurely sexualizing them."

    The national campaign's report notes that one of the allowable uses of
the federal government's new $100 million healthy marriage funding is to
teach relationship skills in high school.

    With the CAS-Carrera model, the goal is to create a long-term
environment to give young people the tools and the motivation to make wise
choices for themselves, such as avoiding parenthood until they are at least
in their 20s, Mr. Carrera said.

    Teaching young people the facts of life are important, "but it becomes
diluted once they leave you unless it's linked to other things that make
them who they are, totally," he said.

    The CAS-Carrera model offers daily services in several areas: education,
employment, family life and sexuality education, art, sports, and mental,
physical, reproductive and dental health care. The year-round program, which
also serves the children's families, is underwritten with public and private
funds and is offered at no cost to participants.

    The CAS-Carrera program doesn't teach sex apart from life, but as a part
of life, Mr. Carrera said. If the children are well-educated, in good
health, are prepped for college and the job market, understand banking and
have "sexual literacy," they'll choose good paths for themselves "because
there's something at stake here," he said.

    The CAS-Carrera program has two sites in Baltimore, and Mr. Carrera said
he is eager to find one in a D.C. neighborhood. Some foundations have
promised financial support, and "we're now ready," he said.

    The District's teen birthrate rate remains one of the highest in the
nation, with 60.3 births per 1,000 teenage girls in 2003, NCHS data show.
This is a 45 percent drop since 1991, but "we've got to do more to motivate
D.C. teens," said Brenda Rhodes Miller, executive director of the DC
Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, adding that her group is working to
bring the CAS-Carrera program to the area.
    

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