After reading this article, my initial reaction wasn't necessarily surprising, but more or less close to home. I"m totally against the idea of kids having any form of sex at that age, but when I look back, it really wasn't that rare. The only section that really freaked me out was the suburbs in Long Island where the groups of seventh and eighth graders rented limousines and had oral sex in corners of clubs. Where's the parent's?.
I believe the authors point is that America's youth is experimenting sexually too early and society is basically allowing it. With examples from interviewing students and research from doctors and psychologists, she sums up all the information needed to prove her point. She does point out that it is a problem, but all cases lead to the fact that we"re not doing enough to stop it. .
It's easy to conclude that her values are much different than what kids are doing right now, and their point of views are also much different than hers at their time and age. As stated in the article, these reasons could be from the rising of divorce rates, availability of condoms and earlier onset of puberty. One does have to consider the factors before blaming the kids on their decisions, let alone their beliefs or "values".
The articles accuracy, to me, is right on and totally believable. I"m sure that what rich kids in Long Island are doing isn't necessarily the same as what the kids in Des Moines are, but the overall national percentage is there. I"m not one to say that this isn't correct, but most of the time I"ll take a doctors word. The only shady part to me is when the psychologist says that they aren't ready, which is more than likely correct, but who are they to say how one should feel.
I"m sure my conclusion will be similar to everyone else's; which is yes, this is a problem. I wish I new the answers for how to approach the problem for schools to teach kids and at what age, but I don't really feel there's a solution.