The norm, what has it become among families today? Divorce was once an uncommon word spoken by few, obtained by less, and a disgrace to most. America the land of opportunities, freedoms, and choices that all may partake in, but has it made families more open to blaspheming a once religious culture. The norm of today's immoral Society, accepts teenage pregnancy and sexually active teen, whereas traditionally premarital sex was frowned upon. Now teens have the added weight of a job. Most teens are employed by age sixteen where as in previous years, school was a full time job, however there were those that insisted upon working.How does this relate to education? In a class poll two out of 10, including the instructor have parents still married, this adds to the daily stress of a teenage mind.In the same poll minus the teacher, four out of ten students were sexually active .Teenage pregnancies are throughout the halls of all American high schools,and with the growing amount of in school daycare it is not only accepted,but is almost condoned.Most parents are divorced, however they do not seem to realize the stress of two addresses, new mommies or daddies, new schools, and new communities. This effects the education of students, because it distracts them from their studies and their grades .Teenagers need twenty credits to graduate, this causes a incredible amount of pressure and the addition of a divorce overloads already impressionable minds. Most children of divorced parents think that something they might have done or did not do may have caused their stable home to become shattered and more like a reminder of their imperfection. Not all students let this factor interfere with their education, but those who do are using low grades as a cry for help, attention, or even for a Simple explanation. Though some are strong willed and believe they can handle such a change of climate, others allow it to tear them down along with the hope of a future of their choice. Per capita divorce rates 1990-2002:

1991, 0.47%
1992, 0.48%
1993, 0.46%
1994, 0.46%
1995, 0.46%
1995, 0.43%
1997, 0.43%,
1998, 0.42%,
1999, 0.41%,
2000, 0.41%,
2001, 0.40%,
2002, 0.38%

11% of the adult population is currently divorced. 25% of adults have had at least one Divorce during their lifetime. Get up, get dressed, go to school, get home, go to work, come home, do homework, get three hours sleep and start all over the next morning; that is now the average teenager's daily schedule. In one generational gap, twenty years, teenagers grew in the work society with an almost 30% increase. Teens now work about thirty hours a week with an additional forty hours of school. The are only 135 hours in a week, so how can teenagers be expected to keep up with their grades and everything else, that the world throws at them. Today about 80% of the teenage population work, and that is a never before heard of fact. This is never before heard of because teens twenty years ago for the most part made school a full time job. There were those that worked, but usually because they wanted to, not because they had to. Today's society demands so much from teens that work is no longer an option. There is the need to fit in to look trendy, a hundred dollar calculator for math when most can not afford a new book bag for back to school. Once again the norm has been tested and a new “normal” has taken its place. Sex, how young is too young? Some believe that when you are in love, age does not matter, but those individuals are wrong. It is to young when you are still worried about passing ninth-grade biology. There is a reason for abstinence, And that is, at fifteen, you can not be ready to deal with the consequences of your actions. Is there a way to knowing and being able to take care of an offspring at such an early? age, a child is one of the greatest gifts in this world, but at fifteen no one is ready to receive such a responsible gift. About fifty percent of high school students are sexually active, and very little is done to change that particular percentage. In farct most high schools are now offering a daycare for teenage parents so that they may still attend school. This is a wonderful idea, and is meant to help, but does knowing that if one was to get pregnant there is a way to still graduate with friends really helping. Yes some teenage parents are blessed with parents of their own that will help, and some go on to graduate and even attend college, but what about those who are not as lucky. Walking around a high school campus, like the one here in Loudon, one might see ten maybe twelve pregnant students not including those with children just down stairs in daycare or at home with grandparents, what is being done to sway this unfortunate cycle. The norm, no longer is it a modest, moral, value centered society, but one of growing tragedies. The affects it has on this generation, the future of America , are not flattering to its once proud population. These statements are not judge, but to inform a dying community of its desperate need for help, if not for the adults of today, then for the children of tomorrow. Jobs among teens now normal along with so much more, however, is normal, normal? Do not rush into a marriage, do not seek hast in intimacy, and do not bring children into a world that is unprepared to nurture them into fine upstanding members of society.