Kassandra+Fierro

=Teen Pregnancies= toc The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world (National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy). As statistics increase teens do not take the situation seriously. Teen pregnancies come with financial and lifestyle consequences that a teen will encounter in his or her future. Teens are educated at an early age to help prevent unexpected births from teens, but the new generation has been consumed by the media and young teens have forgotten the values they were taught. Teen pregnancy has become an epidemic in our society.

We all grow up with some sort of [|sexual education]. The advocates for Youth state that **"sexual education is appropriate and it introduces teens,of different grade levels, information on relationships, awareness, assertiveness and how to resist peer pressure."** Whether it is in school, from parents, or other advocates, we all learned the consequences of being sexually active. Being sexually active can result in circumstances that a family may not be ready to confront. A teen is not mentally nor financially ready for a baby.Teens do not realize the situation they not only put themselves in, but their loved ones as well. As the new generation is transcending, the media is doing everything in its power to entertain the young teens, leading them with the wrong messages.

Media is a huge contribution to teen pregnancies. As more and more teens have kids, the media seems to support them. The Tv show (MTV) is one of the most popular television station that mainly focuses on teens. Since when is having a baby at such a young age a good thing? Now a days we even see shows directed to teen parents, such as “[|Teen Mom].” Teen Mom is a show where a couple of teenage girls tell their stories on how they became pregnant at such a young age. The show has its pros when it comes to the ways a child affected their education and relationship with friends and families around them, but they take it to far when seasons are premiered over and over creating a huge publicity and fame for those young teenagers. The whole concept of the show gives people mixed emotions. Is being a teen mom cool? Is having a baby at a young age a good thing? Having a baby wont effect my future? These are all meaning that the media project and lead teens to bad decisions.

Teens don not realize that they are still dependent their own parents, and would not be able to bring a child up in this world. without an education, a job, maturity, a “child” cannot raise another child.Society should focus more on educating the generation and influencing them in making the decision to be sexually active at a more maturing stage in their lives. Teen pregnancies should not be a joke or a form or entertainment. The education a teen receives should be considered thoroughly, and how it would affect his or her future.

=Regal Park= Because Government owns certain public spaces, can they restrict who and how the spaces are used? The vision of these public spaces are meant to be available for communities to interact. When government takes ownership of a space, they must provide safety for everyone who uses the space. As Klein explains, **they should think about who is included, and who is excluded in what is supposed to be ‘The public’** (3). They should, as well, look into how the space is being used. Is it being used for advertisement, entertainment, politics, drugs, violence, or a space for the homeless? Public spaces that were once a safe place for the public to enjoy can spontaneously become a place where violence actions take place and no one with power steps up to enforce the bad things taking place.

To locals being born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, there are many local places that are used in ways that affect communities. The one location that has caught many communities attention is “Regal Park.” This is the only park on the East side of Santa Fe. It is surrounded by many homes as well as many businesses. There is also A public elementary school that has close access to the park. The park also has activities for people of all ages. While growing up families always had birthday parties at Regal park or simply went out to enjoy a nice day with friends, family or neighbors. At this park you would always come across people of all ages and race. The space was always a calm and safe place to be at, especially for children.

Now, decades later, parents no longer take their children there. Over the years this local place has been over thrown with politics, gangs and violence, that now dominate the park. The public hears, watches, and reads stories on the news, the internet and even in the newspaper about violent actions taking place at “The Regal Park,” or the park being the target for political campaigning. This public space portrays a bad example to the children who attend the school next door. **If the government has the power to enforce the harm being done, then why do they not take action?** (Klein 2). Regal Park has become a space for adults and criminals, therefore is it a ‘public’ space? Children and others who are not affiliated with gangs, drugs, or politics, do not feel welcomed there anymore. Communities complain that they feel they are in danger with what activities are taking place at that the local park in their neighborhood. Those who live near the park, especially feel something should be done to overcome this issue.

Communities have attempted everything they can do, in their power, to control what goes on in public spaces. Such as calling for security, cameras, and community meetings. Does our government not listen to what the community has to say? Or do they see the problem but simply avoid the situation? Government needs to take action and find a solution to the violence and the unfair treatment that the neighbors of regal park are receiving. Neighbors will not feel safe in their own homes dew to the violence. A home is where one should feel safe not threatened and fearful.

= Corporal Punishment Vs. Verbal =

== Generations are affected in many different ways. Whether Corporal punishment is used or verbal punishment is used all depend on the values a family carry within there households. In the past, physical punishment was accepted in public places such as school. The new generation has culturally changed in the way that parents, or guardians, choose to show disciplinary action towards the younger generation. The way families choose to discipline their children, whether it is physical or verbal punishment, depends on the parent’s of the individual. Parents disagree all the time when it comes to using physical punishment as a solution to a problem. Other parents, believe they still have the right to physically punish their children if their children misbehave. Deciding which way of punishing is the better way to handling misbehavior is the question that arises in parents raising children today. In this paper I will evaluate and explain how corporal punishment and verbal punishment go hand in hand and that they both affect the victim the same.

**Parents who choose to use [|corporal punishment] do not teach a child right from wrong** (Gershoff and Larzelere). Parents believe that they are teaching there kids respect and other values when they use corporal punishment, but little do they know that the child might develop problems such as anger issues, and which can also lead to child abuse or psychological problems for the child. One of the most common forms corporal punishment is used is spanking a child. A “spank” can increase a child’s aggression and can affect their social life in the future of the child. Gershoff and Larzelere quote in their article, Gershoff and Larzelere stated that there are many different levels of corporal punishment, and that it all varies on how it is used and the intentions that cause the punishment. Corporal Punishment isn’t the only kind of punishment being used. In households all over the world verbal punishment is also being used on kids.
 * " The act of corporal punishment itself is different across parents-parents vary in how frequently they use it, how forcefully they administer it, how emotionally**
 * aroused they are when they do it, and whether they combine it with other techniques."**

[|Verbal punishment] is used just as much as corporal punishment. Solomon and Serres said that **verbal violence has negative effects on children's self-esteem and academic achievements**. This is a true statement because if a child is always being punished at home verbally, they are gonna feel as if they are not liked by others. They might have trouble making new friends. After the study was performed that Solomon and Serres performed they didn’t see a huge correlation between verbal punishment and Self esteem, but that grades were somewhat lower then the kids in class. When a kid is small, self esteem is very important because that is when the child is starting to experience individuality. The experiment was done to show that corporal punishment was much worse then verbal punishment, although they are both very bad all around.

In this paper I evaluated and explained how corporal punishment and verbal punishment go hand in hand and that they both affect the victim the same. There really is no safe way to punishing a child. Parents should not physically hurt a child nor should they hurt a child psychologically. If parents focus on their children’s bad habits at an early age, then they will not have to indulge in corporal punishment or verbal punishment later.

=Work Cited= //Advocates for Youth//. , 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. .

Gershoff, Elizabeth, and Robert Larzelere. //American Psychological Association//. N.p., 26 Jan. 2002. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <[|__http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2002/06/spanking.aspx__]>.

Klein, Phil. //National Identities//. Colorado: n.p., n.d. 1-7. Print.

Solomon, Ruth, and Serres Franqoise. "Child Abuse and Neglect." //Effects of parental verbal aggression on children's self-esteem and school marks// 23.4: 339-51. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.