How do you feel about teens not using birth control and having babies?

[BrynnaI]

I live on a Cree reserve (I'm not native) and everywhere I look I see pregnant teenage girls. I know many women who had two or more babies by the time they turned 18. I don't understand why the Canadian government is letting these people slip through the cracks so that they can continue the vicious circle of poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, and teenage pregnancy. These people rarely finish high school because they have babies at such a young age. They go on welfare and they live of their child tax benefits. They recieve free housing from the band so they don't have to worry about paying for a place to live. They get free health and dental...what I'm saying is that they have no incentive to finish school and become successful, responsible people. It's a damn shame. There is so much wasted potential. These people could have so much more than what they've got; they could have so much more meaningful lives.

[BLUEJAY57]

don't like it, sound like the same story, different people, mexican coming to the U S and getting all the benefits

[DJKnuckles]

They are crazy

[JenniferD0144]

First of all, I look up to you, especially if you're a teacher living on a reserve (I had a prof who taught on a reserve before, and she said she lived through some traumatizing experiences because some of the students she taught did not grow up feeling ... motivated enough to behave?).I had alot of Native students in the college I went to in my first couple years of post-secondary institutions. They were proud of their culture, they were articulate, and they were not stereotypes.Some attempted to explain why some live how the live, continuing the bad feelings that people often have of them...You pretty much described it all. As well, some are afraid to leave their reserves and get an education outside of it because they can be seen as traitors and joining the Non-Native peoples who put them on a fraction of the land they lived on before to begin with. So many Native peoples do not want to seem like traitors...And honestly, I heard that often times the standards of living on SOME reserves are not up there, it's depressing.. there's overt unemployment, etc etc.. so what to do but drink your sorrows away...This is when I can argue people can be a product of their environment; I don't want to say when Native daughters are born, their mothers say to them, "well you're going to pound out kids for the rest of your life;" but there's obviously not enough attention on educating them on sex and on a safe stable (family) life... it's nothing wrong to them, but it continues their poor standard of living (unemployment + large number of kids.. how the hell can they survive.. so.. yeah SOMETIMES alcohol is a factor).And since people often look down on them.. might as well do it right (that's what one student argued). The image of the drunk Native wandering around, might as well just do as they say, because that's how people see them.It's sad.

[Dave_Serpiente]

I personally find it very annoying and saddening at the same time. Some times theres more to offer but, can't be achieved because you fall in love with the wrong person and have to deal with kids before you're time.