I think I've seen more pregnant students at our high school this fall and last year than during the previous ten years combined.

Strange how attitudes have shifted in a single generation. When I was in high school, back in the 70s, the idea was becoming accepted that if you really really loved someone and were in a committed relationship with him, it was okay to sleep together. That was hte polite euphemism for having sex, of course.

Nowadays, virginity is regarded as a shameful burden to be gotten rid of as quickly as possible. And in some elements of the culture (I'm sadly speaking of some pockets of the black community), boys aren't men until they've fathered children, and girls aren't regarded as "real women" until they've become pregnant.

I'm also disheartened by how irreverently and casually I sometimes overhear girls talking about sex, even oral sex. I was so backwards through my adolescence, I thought oral sex was the same thing as French kissing!

Dear God in Heaven! Where is the innocence of childhood anymore? Our children are losing out on so much that is precious! And how can we recover it without a lot of aggressive work?