1993-1994 Harry Singer Foundation National Essay Contest

Doesn't Anyone Care About The Children?

Teacher: Twila Gross

James Valley Christian High School, Huron, South Dakota

   1st Daniel Nielsen  2nd Jettie Lee Buttermore 3rd Jory Wipf

"Children who are not disciplined become rebellious adolescents."
Colleen Hofer, James Valley Christian School, Huron, South Dakota

 "The responsibility for getting this problem under control lies first with the students and teens of this country. I think that the parents and schools share the next biggest burden of responsibility. Students definitely need more discipline from both places. There is not much that lawmakers can do. If a student desires a gun badly enough, he will get one; but it should be made as difficult as possible. If the teens themselves and [their] parents do not take responsibility for their actions, pretty soon every school in America will have had a murder and everyone will be toting guns and killing each other over stupid things like sneakers or a girlfriend."
Jory Wipf, James Valley Christian High School, Huron, South Dakota

 "In the mid-1980s, Leon Dash, a black reporter for the Washington Post, spent more than a year living in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods in an effort to understand why unmarried teens had babies. Initially, he believed that the big problems were ignorance about birth control and boys victimizing girls. After exhaustive interviews, he changed his mind. Teenagers knew about birth control. Girls were often 'equal-or-greater -actors than their boyfriends in exploring sexuality and becoming pregnant,' he wrote later in When Children Want Children. For many girls in poverty-stricken areas, having 'a baby is a tangible achievement in an otherwise dreary and empty future. It is one way of announcing: I am a woman. For many boys...the birth of a baby represents an identical rite of passage. The boy is saying: I am a man."
Colleen Hofer, James Valley Christian School, Huron, South Dakota

"Experts in crime, drug abuse, depression, and school failure blame the family problems on the disappearance of fathers from the American family. David Blankenhorn comments that the trend of father lessness is the most socially consequential family trend of our generation. Studies of young criminals have found that more than seventy percent of all juveniles in state reform institutions come from fatherless homes. Children reared in broken homes are almost twice as likely as those in two-parent families to drop out of high school."
Jennifer Stahl, James Valley Christian High School,Huron, South Dakota

 "A bill to prohibit guns to minors is in the South Dakota House."
Jory Wipf, James Valley Christian School, Huron, SouthDakota

 "Parents still have the responsibility to shape and mold their children into responsible adults. Parents should spend more time with their children when they are younger, teach them proper behavior, and show love to them. As a result, the child would respect parents and care what they think."
Colleen Hofer, James Valley Christian School, Huron, South Dakota

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