A recent report shows that fewer babies were born to teenagers in 2010 than at any point since the United States started tracking that information in the early 20th century. The national numbers are good news and represent a year over year decline of nearly 10%. The hard numbers are that out of 1000 women ages 15 to 19, 35 of them delivered babies in 2010. Comparing this number to previous years shows some bumps in the road but an overall downward trend since 1991. In 2007 that number was 42 per 1000, in 1991 the number was 62 per 1000, and the highest number was in 1961 at about 89 per 1000. Unfortunately, Mississippi has the highest rate in America at 55 births per 1000 teenage girls.
The reason for our high birth rate among teens is complicated and anybody that tells you they know the answer is either confused or lying. Considering all of the things we know about the people in our state, I have picked the following three statistics to explore in conjunction with our teen birth rate. We are the most religious people in the country. We have the lowest income in the country. Our students score last in mathematics and science scores which leads to us having the highest drop-out rate.
How does religion affect our teen birth rate? Nearly every religion practiced in the state says that sex outside of marriage is a sin. According to Gallup, 85% of Mississippians claim that religion is an important part of our daily lives. I have no reason to doubt this. Nearly every person I know claims to be a religious person and many attend church services every time the doors are open. Compared to the rest of the nation where only 65% claim religion is important in their daily lives, we are quite a devout group of people.
For me, this suggests that our children and teens know the value of being abstinent. We preach this to them on a fairly regular basis from the time they are old enough to understand where babies come from. So, our religions should be forcing our teen birth rates lower than the rest of the nation but this is not the case. There is a big contradiction between being the most religious people in the country and also having the highest teen pregnancy rate. I also want to point out that this is not just a teen issue; nearly 50% of all babies born in Mississippi are to unwed mothers. Clearly religious teachings alone cannot stop people from having sex.
How does low income affect our teen birth rate? This question seems easy to answer from a simple overview of data but with all things it is difficult to know for certain. Nationwide, the stats show that lower income teenagers have higher birth rates than their higher income peers. The generally accepted reason for this is that the wealthier teens can afford birth control and while this is true, it is only part of the story.
For some reason, wealthier families talk to their children about sex more than poor families. Indeed, surveys show that children from wealthier families know more about potential health risks of sexual activities than do children of poorer families. This extends to education in general. Children from wealthier families perform better in school and are much less likely to drop-out. This is often attributed to the parents being active in the child’s education.
It is quite a horrible circle. Poor teens are more likely to get pregnant because they have less access to birth control and because their parents have not had the talk with them. Then these teen mothers are often doomed to live on the lower end of society financially and so their children are raised in a poor household. When these children are teens they face the same conditions their mother did fifteen years earlier. They have parents that are poor, tend to be less educated, and are less likely to talk to them about sex. In this way teen pregnancy can be thought of as a plague that is passed from one generation to the next.
So here we have two conflicting sides of the same issue. On the one hand we have the most religiously moral people in the country but also the least educated and most poor people in the country. Why is it that the moral argument of abstinence does not have a stronger effect on our teens? I am not able to answer that question and will not venture guesses; however, the hormonal and social pressures of being a teenager are very strong. It is my belief that the sexual urges of a teenager are strong enough to override any amount of abstinence education we adults give them.
It is into this reality that Tupelo’s School Board voted Tuesday to continue only teaching abstinence only education to our teens. I would like to know why. I understand that parents do not want their children being told to go out and have sex; unfortunately, 60% of Mississippi’s teens already are sexually active. This is true in spite of our abstinence only stance and high religiosity.
It seems to me that we the people of Mississippi should come together and admit that things are not working as they are now and make a change. Sex education in school is in essence a biology and anatomy science class. Can someone explain to me why this type of education is opposed? Would it not be better for our children to be educated?
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Education’s Effect on Getting Jobs
I am a strong advocate of people getting college degrees. I have three of them myself and each higher degree has increased both my opportunities and my happiness in life. I love learning new things and increasing my understanding of those things I think I already know. I think that is part of the reason I love being in the IT industry. Few things change as rapidly as computer related technologies. Very few days go by when I do not learn something new about my chosen profession.
I work with manufacturers throughout the state that are trying to hire workers. They report to me that only one in five people in Mississippi have enough education to be hired at an entry level position. That does not mean that only 20% or Mississippians are educated, but that only 20% of those applying for these positions are qualified. Most of them are not considered by the Human Resources department because they did not graduate high school.
So, what are the real numbers on high school graduates? Before I became involved with the Center for Manufacturing Excellence, I thought that the numbers provided by the department of education were accurate. These numbers fluctuate every year but show a consistent dropout rate of less than 15% and a graduation rate above 85%. In my opinion, these numbers are horrible and our dropout rate should be closer to 2% with a great amount of assistance for those 2% to get them trained for the workforce.
Unfortunately the situation is worse than it appears. The numbers above are horribly inflated and the state of Mississippi as well as many other states, keep two sets of books. The official number is calculated as the number of high school seniors that finish their senior year and graduate. The unofficial and more accurate number should be the number of freshmen that finish their senior year and graduate. See the subtle difference? Many students drop out in the three years before becoming a senior and if you look at these numbers, Mississippi’s graduation rate is closer to 65%.
This number meshes much closer with what industry people are reporting to us. They tell me that about 30% of the people in the state do not have high school educations. With few exceptions, the state’s manufacturers will not hire someone that did not finish high school and many will not hire someone that does not have at least some higher education. My heart goes out to these people without educations because their ability to find work in the future will only get tougher.
At the other end of the education scale, I am friends with two people that have doctorate degrees that cannot find work. One person has a PhD in Mathematics and the other person has a PhD in Computational Biology. Both of these people have been to my office in the past month looking for advice on how to get work in the software industry. For both of these people, the industry has basically told them that they are over qualified.
Human resource departments are hesitant to hire someone with too much education into an entry level position. The thinking is that the person will be constantly looking for another job and HR will have to look for another person to fill that same position in the near future. In fact, the cost of training an over educated person can be more expensive than training and under educated person. The under educated person will often fail out early from the training but the other will finish the training and even work in the position for a while.
It is only when the over educated person finds a better job that he leaves. The educated person thinks of these low level positions as stepping stones while the uneducated person thinks of this as a career opportunity. This is why most businesses list very specific education and skill sets for their positions. Not only do they need someone that is capable of doing the job, but they also need someone that is going to stay in that position for an extended period of time.
If you are looking for some sort of suggestion at this point, I am sorry, I do not really have one. I will suggest however, that it is always better to be the over educated individual than the under educated person. It is far easier to dumb down your skill set than it is to claim skills you do not have.
I work with manufacturers throughout the state that are trying to hire workers. They report to me that only one in five people in Mississippi have enough education to be hired at an entry level position. That does not mean that only 20% or Mississippians are educated, but that only 20% of those applying for these positions are qualified. Most of them are not considered by the Human Resources department because they did not graduate high school.
So, what are the real numbers on high school graduates? Before I became involved with the Center for Manufacturing Excellence, I thought that the numbers provided by the department of education were accurate. These numbers fluctuate every year but show a consistent dropout rate of less than 15% and a graduation rate above 85%. In my opinion, these numbers are horrible and our dropout rate should be closer to 2% with a great amount of assistance for those 2% to get them trained for the workforce.
Unfortunately the situation is worse than it appears. The numbers above are horribly inflated and the state of Mississippi as well as many other states, keep two sets of books. The official number is calculated as the number of high school seniors that finish their senior year and graduate. The unofficial and more accurate number should be the number of freshmen that finish their senior year and graduate. See the subtle difference? Many students drop out in the three years before becoming a senior and if you look at these numbers, Mississippi’s graduation rate is closer to 65%.
This number meshes much closer with what industry people are reporting to us. They tell me that about 30% of the people in the state do not have high school educations. With few exceptions, the state’s manufacturers will not hire someone that did not finish high school and many will not hire someone that does not have at least some higher education. My heart goes out to these people without educations because their ability to find work in the future will only get tougher.
At the other end of the education scale, I am friends with two people that have doctorate degrees that cannot find work. One person has a PhD in Mathematics and the other person has a PhD in Computational Biology. Both of these people have been to my office in the past month looking for advice on how to get work in the software industry. For both of these people, the industry has basically told them that they are over qualified.
Human resource departments are hesitant to hire someone with too much education into an entry level position. The thinking is that the person will be constantly looking for another job and HR will have to look for another person to fill that same position in the near future. In fact, the cost of training an over educated person can be more expensive than training and under educated person. The under educated person will often fail out early from the training but the other will finish the training and even work in the position for a while.
It is only when the over educated person finds a better job that he leaves. The educated person thinks of these low level positions as stepping stones while the uneducated person thinks of this as a career opportunity. This is why most businesses list very specific education and skill sets for their positions. Not only do they need someone that is capable of doing the job, but they also need someone that is going to stay in that position for an extended period of time.
If you are looking for some sort of suggestion at this point, I am sorry, I do not really have one. I will suggest however, that it is always better to be the over educated individual than the under educated person. It is far easier to dumb down your skill set than it is to claim skills you do not have.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Body Part Betrayal
Most adults have experienced times when it felt as if our body was betraying our wishes. What I mean is that sometimes our bodies do things that our mind does not want it to do. I think the simplest form of this would be when body parts fall asleep. Try to walk on a foot that has gone to sleep and you will know what body part betrayal is all about.
In my life I have had all sorts of body parts go rogue on me. My knees have locked up while I was walking causing me and the ground to meet face-to-face at a rapid pace. I often have muscle cramps that nullify my ability to stand-up or walk. These cramps are in my calf muscles usually but they can also show up in both the front and rear of my thigh muscles. The strangest of all these are the cramps that are on the inside of my thigh going into the groin region. As far as I can tell, there is no good way to stretch these out once they start.
But above all other things that have happened, the one that had the greatest impact on my life was Bell's Palsy. I went to bed one night feeling fine and woke up the next morning feeling equally fine. In fact, I did not know anything was wrong until I started brushing my teeth. I tried to drink some water to wet my mouth and a large portion of it poured out of my mouth, down my chin, and back into the sink. This apparently did not set off alarm bells and in the groggy haze of only being awake five minutes I went on try and brush my teeth. Moments later I have slobber, snot, and toothpaste dribbling down my chin and it finally registers that something is not right.
In fact, the first thought that ran through my head is that I'd had a stroke. After waking my wife we went to the emergency room to be told that it was not a big deal and that lots of people get this thing called Bell's Palsy. I never did make a full recovery but I have recovered to a point that most people do not notice the slight droop on the left side of my face. Other than facial expressions that have changed permanently such as my smile, the only side effect that continues to bother me is that I bite my jaw while eating much more often than I did before.
Now the one part of my body that has never really failed me has been my brain. Certainly there have been times when I could not remember something. Names, dates, and numbers are common place things that we all forget and yes everyone loses small things. But, most people have never experienced true betrayal of our thoughts. Perhaps that is why one of my, and many other people's, greatest fears involve losing our mind in some way. This also explains why so many horror movies are set in and around mental institutions.
Any person that has a friend or family member that is dealing with Alzheimer's disease will be able to tell you how horrific diseases of the brain can be. Indeed, my heart goes out to all persons that have loved ones suffering through mental illnesses. Your own brain can cause you the greatest betrayal imaginable. This is the seat of your own Self, everything that makes a person an individual resides in the brain. If your brain gets mixed up in some way, it is possible to lose yourself completely. I cannot imagine anything scarier.
This post was written because I have been thinking about my mother quite a bit lately. After years of chemo-treatments, it has taken its toll on her brain. She is in relatively good shape both physically and mentally but we know that she will be facing issues going forward. We are doing everything the doctors tell us and are trying to plan for the future but we currently have very few answers. I will perhaps write more about my mother's condition later but for now I will simply say that my heart aches for my mother facing what is one of my greatest fears.
In my life I have had all sorts of body parts go rogue on me. My knees have locked up while I was walking causing me and the ground to meet face-to-face at a rapid pace. I often have muscle cramps that nullify my ability to stand-up or walk. These cramps are in my calf muscles usually but they can also show up in both the front and rear of my thigh muscles. The strangest of all these are the cramps that are on the inside of my thigh going into the groin region. As far as I can tell, there is no good way to stretch these out once they start.
But above all other things that have happened, the one that had the greatest impact on my life was Bell's Palsy. I went to bed one night feeling fine and woke up the next morning feeling equally fine. In fact, I did not know anything was wrong until I started brushing my teeth. I tried to drink some water to wet my mouth and a large portion of it poured out of my mouth, down my chin, and back into the sink. This apparently did not set off alarm bells and in the groggy haze of only being awake five minutes I went on try and brush my teeth. Moments later I have slobber, snot, and toothpaste dribbling down my chin and it finally registers that something is not right.
In fact, the first thought that ran through my head is that I'd had a stroke. After waking my wife we went to the emergency room to be told that it was not a big deal and that lots of people get this thing called Bell's Palsy. I never did make a full recovery but I have recovered to a point that most people do not notice the slight droop on the left side of my face. Other than facial expressions that have changed permanently such as my smile, the only side effect that continues to bother me is that I bite my jaw while eating much more often than I did before.
Now the one part of my body that has never really failed me has been my brain. Certainly there have been times when I could not remember something. Names, dates, and numbers are common place things that we all forget and yes everyone loses small things. But, most people have never experienced true betrayal of our thoughts. Perhaps that is why one of my, and many other people's, greatest fears involve losing our mind in some way. This also explains why so many horror movies are set in and around mental institutions.
Any person that has a friend or family member that is dealing with Alzheimer's disease will be able to tell you how horrific diseases of the brain can be. Indeed, my heart goes out to all persons that have loved ones suffering through mental illnesses. Your own brain can cause you the greatest betrayal imaginable. This is the seat of your own Self, everything that makes a person an individual resides in the brain. If your brain gets mixed up in some way, it is possible to lose yourself completely. I cannot imagine anything scarier.
This post was written because I have been thinking about my mother quite a bit lately. After years of chemo-treatments, it has taken its toll on her brain. She is in relatively good shape both physically and mentally but we know that she will be facing issues going forward. We are doing everything the doctors tell us and are trying to plan for the future but we currently have very few answers. I will perhaps write more about my mother's condition later but for now I will simply say that my heart aches for my mother facing what is one of my greatest fears.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Prisoner's Dilemma with 44 Students
Not sure what all I am going to put on this blog. I have in the past posted about technology and things that make me angry. There will probably be some of that on here but what I really want is just to post things that pop into my head.
One thing that occurred to me last week is a new take on the prisoner's dilemma. Most of you will know what that is but if not, you should watch the short video below. Imagine a cop putting two suspects in two interrogation rooms. The cop tells both suspects that they will get off if they rat out the other one. What do the suspects do? If only one rats out the other then he "wins". If they both rat out each other then they both "lose". If they both keep their mouth shut then they both win.
So I occasionally teach software development courses at the University of Mississippi. Inevitably, at the end of each semester I have a line of students in my office asking me to change a grade on some assignment or asking me to give them extra credit. Now, if I have graded something too harshly, then I am glad to adjust a grade and I do make mistakes so some of these requests are justified. The majority are people just trying to get those extra couple of points to move from a D to a C.
The problem is that this is detrimental to the rest of their classmates. See, my grading curves are based on how well or poorly the entire class does. So, the more points I give to these students, the less likely it is that the entire class will get a curved grade.
Here is my entire class unwittingly playing with the prisoner's dilemma. They know, because it is in my syllabus and I have repeatedly told them in class, that my grading curve is dependent on the entire classes' performance. One thing I have learned, I never want to be arrested with any of these students. They are really nice people but they will beg, borrow, and steal to get two extra points regardless of what it does to their classmates.
One thing that occurred to me last week is a new take on the prisoner's dilemma. Most of you will know what that is but if not, you should watch the short video below. Imagine a cop putting two suspects in two interrogation rooms. The cop tells both suspects that they will get off if they rat out the other one. What do the suspects do? If only one rats out the other then he "wins". If they both rat out each other then they both "lose". If they both keep their mouth shut then they both win.
The problem is that this is detrimental to the rest of their classmates. See, my grading curves are based on how well or poorly the entire class does. So, the more points I give to these students, the less likely it is that the entire class will get a curved grade.
Here is my entire class unwittingly playing with the prisoner's dilemma. They know, because it is in my syllabus and I have repeatedly told them in class, that my grading curve is dependent on the entire classes' performance. One thing I have learned, I never want to be arrested with any of these students. They are really nice people but they will beg, borrow, and steal to get two extra points regardless of what it does to their classmates.
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