What
Has Happened In America Since Prayer Was Taken Out Of Our Schools?
Behind the
Curtain…
The Facts: A Study of Destruction
and of Hope
Compiled and written
by Murray Hornsby
American Heritage Alliance Inc.
Chapter 5
What Has Happened To Our Teenagers In Our Schools?
Over
the past 30 years (it was reported in 1993 in "Index of
Leading Cultural Indicators" by the Heritage Foundation)
our population has increased 41%, but our Gross Domestic
Product has tripled, and our social spending has had the benefit
of a 500% increase, impressive by any standards. And yet,
we have had a 500% increase in violent crime, a 400%
increase in illegitimate birth, a 400% increase in the
divorce rate, a 300% increase in single parent homes, a
200% increase in teenage suicides, and a 75 point
decrease in SAT scores.
Each
day in America there are 2,795 teen pregnancies and 4,219
teenagers who contract sexually transmitted diseases. Every
64 seconds a baby is born to a teenage mother; five minutes later,
a baby will have been born to a teenager who already has a child.
Ten hours later, 560 babies will have been born to teenagers.
Every day there are 106 teen abortions alone! ….from "Twilight's
Last Gleaming? By Chuck Missler
According
to a survey conducted by Nielsen Media Research in 2000, the
average U.S. home has the TV on for 8 hours a day, with each person
watching it close to 4 hours a day. Contrast those statistics
with the average amount of time parents spend in meaningful conversation
with their children- a mere 39 minutes each week! (American
Research Council ). That breaks down to 5 ½ minutes a day!
This is a graphic example of backwards priorities within many
families.
How can we allow this to happen in our families? Perhaps
the answer is that we simply aren't concerned. According to the
Nielson survey, the average American youth watches 1,023 hours
of TV a year. In a different study conducted by the Kaiser Family
Foundation in 1999, fully 95% of TV time among children 8 years
old and older is unsupervised. For children between 2 and 7, 81%
of TV time is unsupervised. The Kaiser study also found out that
65% of children 8 years old and older have no parental rules limiting
what they watch. These statistics are overwhelming and convicting!
Most parents simply don't concern themselves with what their children
are watching.
If TV was a valid substitute for the caring attention a loving
mother and father should provide, ether would be no real concern.
But that is not the case. On the contrary, most TV programming
targets and harms the children….. from "A Monster
in Your Home" by Mark Saranga in The Philadelphia Trumpet.
The
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) reports
in a new study that more kids than ever are using alcohol- many
of them below age 15. The Columbia University-based CASA research
found the number of children who begin drinking before age 15
has jumped to 36%. The study also found that 30% of drinking teen-agers
say they engage in binge drinking-that is, at least 5 drinks in
quick succession- at least once a month …from "Group
Calls for Focus on Alcohol Abuse" by Charles MiVille, Family
News In Focus, March 1, 2002
According
to the U.S.News and World Report:
- 3
million crimes are committed in and around public schools every
year more than 270,000 kids carry guns to school each day
- 1
in 7 Twelfth graders reported being threatened with a weapon
in school in 1962
…from "Destroying Education to Save It: Abolishing
School Prayer", Breakpoint, January 29, 1996
The
following statistics are reported in "How State And Local
Officials Can Restore Discipline And Civility To America's Public
Schools" by Stephen Wallis
ITEM: "Twenty percent of high school students now carry
a firearm, knife, razor, club or some other weapon on a regular
basis.".. Cited by Heritage Foundation Distinguished
Fellow William J. Bennett, The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators:
Facts and Figures on the State of American Society (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1994), p. 3 1.
ITEM: According to the National League of Cities, school violence
during the past year resulted in student death and injury in 41
percent of American cities with a population of 100,000 or more.-
Associated Press, "School Survey Finds Violence All Over;
Big Cities Are Worst," The Washington Post, November 2, 1994,
p. A- 17.
ITEM:
"In 1991, 134,000 teenagers used cocaine once a week or
more and 580,000 teenagers used marijuana once a week or more.
In addition, 454,000 junior and senior high school students were
weekly binge drinkers."- Bennett, The Index of Leading
Cultural Indicators, p. 42.
ITEM:
Approximately 900 teachers throughout the nation are threatened
with bodily harm, and nearly 40 teachers are physically attacked,
each hour of the school day. Some 4 160,000 students miss school
daily because of intimidation or fear of bodily harm.- Associated
Press, "100,000 Students Carry Guns, Teacher Group Says,"
The Baltimore Sun, January 15, 1993.
ITEM:
A 1993 USA Weekend survey on school disruption revealed that
nearly 40 percent of students nationwide think schools are unsafe.
They are right to think so. It is reported that 2,000 students
are physically attacked each hour of the school day; one in five
students carries a weapon to school daily; nearly half of those
students in the survey say they avoid school restrooms out of
fear; and a full 63 percent say they would learn more if they
felt safer. (Leslie Ansley, "Safety in Schools: It Just
Keeps Getting Worse," USA Weekend magazine, August 13-15,
1993, pp. 4-6.
Some will never learn; at least 30 violent deaths occurred
in the schools in the past academic year.- Mary Jordan, "inside
Schools, the Weapons Tally Rises," The Washington Post, June
27, 1993, p. A3.
