Weeding out the roots of evil – some reasons behind an increasing trend of teen sex in Singapore and some solutions to them

Teenage sex - a passing fad or a permanent pressing issue? Whatever the answer, one thing is for certain - it is now getting worse in Singapore. According to the August 15th 2009 Straits Times article, “More girls under age 14 having sex”, Crime statistics showed that the number of statutory rape cases involving girls under 14 jumped more than 70 per cent, to 37 cases, compared to the same period last year.

“What are the driving forces behind teenage sex?” some might ask. Many things could cause the rising trend of teen sex in Singapore. Among them are accessibility and changing societal norms and peer pressure. I shall examine these reasons more closely and explain their role as causes for the increase in teenage sex cases in Singapore. I will also voice my stand in what can be done by what parties to rectify these problems.

Firstly, accessibility – nowadays, research materials, social networking sites, etc. are available at the click of a button. Various materials are also allowed to be published on the web with almost no restrictions. Examples include blogs, where netizens can post anything on the blog. However, along with this freedom of expression comes the definite threat of pornographic material posted on the net. Other than occasional warnings against visiting these sites if you are underage, there are almost no means of prohibiting access to these underage visitors. When teens visit these sites, they often do so for pleasure and once the euphoria from “DIY sex” wears off, they often look for other, better means of obtaining sexual pleasure, sometimes go so far as to mimic acts learned from pornographic websites – hence, teen sex. All my points can be seen to be supported in an asiaoneHealth article which says that “ Youth counsellors and doctors point to the influence of cyberspace as one possible cause for the trend... With pornography readily available online, teens not only get more used to the idea of sex, but they also learn at a young age how to do it.” (See more in article http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20080407-58557.html)

“With great power comes great responsibility.” The power of the internet lets us have anything we want at our fingertips. However, teens must be responsible and they, as young adults, should be able to decide for themselves what they can view. Parents are also responsible for the websites that their teens view and should do as much as they can to either block accessibility to unsuitable websites or at least monitor their teens’ internet activities. They should also talk to their child openly about teen sex to educate them about its implications.

The second cause behind teen sex would be changing societal norms and peer pressure. In the past, underage sex was often considered to be a sin. Even though it is still frowned upon by adults, teens nowadays think it is “cool” and some decide to try it out with their partner. Since the changing societal norms (among teens at least) makes teens consider sex to be “cool”, peer pressure from trying to be among the “in” crowd would result in teens resorting to having teen sex to be cooler than their friends. Even “Dr Carol Balhetchet... has also noticed a mindset shift in teenagers in the last five years. ‘Gone are the days when virginity is pure. It is now cool to have sex,' she said...’” (See more in article http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20080407-58557.html)

Schools, in this case, play an important role in rooting out this problem. Sexual education in schools should convince students that having teen sex is not cool and that the dangers and consequences of teen sex (including the possibility of having to parent a baby/getting sexually transmitted diseases) far outweigh the short period of pleasure that the teens will experience.

This list of causes and their rectifications is not exhaustive; there are many more reasons why more teens nowadays are having teenage sex and many more solutions to these reasons.

Teenage sex is not just breaking the law; it presents some of teens with a heavy responsibility – that of having to raise a child. Faced with this responsibility, teens often have to make tough decisions not meant for people their age to make – like abortion or abandonment. And that’s not to mention the increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases through sex. This is not a very nice position to be put in at such a tender age. Let us examine the root of the problem – what causes teenagers to be driven to have sex at such a young age, and one day, hopefully, be able to implement solutions, such as those mentioned above, to solve the roots of these problems.

Weeding out the roots of evil – some reasons behind an increasing trend of teen sex in Singapore and some solutions to them

Teenage sex - a passing fad or a permanent pressing issue? Whatever the answer, one thing is for certain - it is now getting worse in Singapore. According to the August 15th 2009 Straits Times article, “More girls under age 14 having sex”, Crime statistics showed that the number of statutory rape cases involving girls under 14 jumped more than 70 per cent, to 37 cases, compared to the same period last year.
“What are the driving forces behind teenage sex?” some might ask. Many things could cause the rising trend of teen sex in Singapore. Among them are accessibility and changing societal norms and peer pressure. I shall examine these reasons more closely and explain their role as causes for the increase in teenage sex cases in Singapore. I will also voice my stand in what can be done by what parties to rectify these problems.
Firstly, accessibility – nowadays, research materials, social networking sites, etc. are available at the click of a button. Various materials are also allowed to be published on the web with almost no restrictions. Examples include blogs, where netizens can post anything on the blog. However, along with this freedom of expression comes the definite threat of pornographic material posted on the net. Other than occasional warnings against visiting these sites if you are underage, there are almost no means of prohibiting access to these underage visitors. When teens visit these sites, they often do so for pleasure and once the euphoria from “DIY sex” wears off, they often look for other, better means of obtaining sexual pleasure, sometimes go so far as to mimic acts learned from pornographic websites – hence, teen sex. All my points can be seen to be supported in an asiaoneHealth article which says that “ Youth counsellors and doctors point to the influence of cyberspace as one possible cause for the trend... With pornography readily available online, teens not only get more used to the idea of sex, but they also learn at a young age how to do it.” (See more in article http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20080407-58557.html)
“With great power comes great responsibility.” The power of the internet lets us have anything we want at our fingertips. However, teens must be responsible and they, as young adults, should be able to decide for themselves what they can view. Parents are also responsible for the websites that their teens view and should do as much as they can to either block accessibility to unsuitable websites or at least monitor their teens’ internet activities. They should also talk to their child openly about teen sex to educate them about its implications.
The second cause behind teen sex would be changing societal norms and peer pressure. In the past, underage sex was often considered to be a sin. Even though it is still frowned upon by adults, teens nowadays think it is “cool” and some decide to try it out with their partner. Since the changing societal norms (among teens at least) makes teens consider sex to be “cool”, peer pressure from trying to be among the “in” crowd would result in teens resorting to having teen sex to be cooler than their friends. Even “Dr Carol Balhetchet... has also noticed a mindset shift in teenagers in the last five years. ‘Gone are the days when virginity is pure. It is now cool to have sex,' she said...’” (See more in article http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20080407-58557.html)
Schools, in this case, play an important role in rooting out this problem. Sexual education in schools should convince students that having teen sex is not cool and that the dangers and consequences of teen sex (including the possibility of having to parent a baby/getting sexually transmitted diseases) far outweigh the short period of pleasure that the teens will experience.
This list of causes and their rectifications is not exhaustive; there are many more reasons why more teens nowadays are having teenage sex and many more solutions to these reasons.
Teenage sex is not just breaking the law; it presents some of teens with a heavy responsibility – that of having to raise a child. Faced with this responsibility, teens often have to make tough decisions not meant for people their age to make – like abortion or abandonment. And that’s not to mention the increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases through sex. This is not a very nice position to be put in at such a tender age. Let us examine the root of the problem – what causes teenagers to be driven to have sex at such a young age, and one day, hopefully, be able to implement solutions, such as those mentioned above, to solve the roots of these problems.

ERP 1

Mother Tongue (a)
I was only 5 years old when my grandmother moved in with us. My grandfather had recently passed away from a heart attack and she could not fend for herself in Penang where she had lived till now.

I still remember it like it was yesterday – as she entered our house with her meager belongings, I went up to say hello. However, she replied to me in an alien language I had never heard before. I later learnt that she spoke Hokkien and to my shock my parents conversed with her fluently in that tongue. To my young and inquisitive mind, I was awestruck. How did my parents suddenly learn such a strange and alien language? I ran up to my sisters’ room and they laughed at my innocence before explaining that my parents actually came from Penang and were not from Singapore as I had originally believed! I went downstairs again to see my grandmother. She called me over to sit next to her and I obliged. She told my parents (as I would find out later from them) that I was “guai” (well-behaved) and handsome.

With each passing day I grew closer and closer to my grandmother, but the gap between us in terms of our means of communication grew wider and wider, with me having to resort to my parents as translators. I soon found out about the similarities between Chinese (my mother tongue) and Hokkien, and as a result, attempted to communicate with her in Chinese. However, after many failed communication attempts, I finally gave up my futile attempts and had to resort to learning the actual language. I learnt a few basic words of Hokkien, but I was never really able to master it like my oldest sister. I still remember a few years later, she told me in Hokkien to stop climbing over the chair, lest I fall down. I replied “wo bei pahto” (I won’t fall down) and my family burst out laughing.

However, as I grew older, the exact opposite happened and I never really talked to my grandmother much, as a result of being embarrassed that I did not know how to speak to her, and avoiding as much contact as possible, using excuses like studying to hide in my room, and when I was required to speak to her, I usually did it indirectly through my parents. I suspected it had something to do with me feeling more mature and not having the time to speak to an old lady in a strange language I did not even understand. My innocence was gone – I was no longer a young boy sitting in his grandmother’s lap with an inquisitive look, trying to comprehend the conversation. I was a young man now. I was independent and could not spend time with a weird old lady spouting “nonsense”.

It was only a few years later, when my grandmother passed away, that I felt the full blown consequences of my actions. I had lost a family member dear to me, and I had not taken time off, not even a few minutes, to get to know her better. My grandmother was gone forever. Thinking back now, it had all been my fault. My grandmother had made many attempts to get closer to me, giving me presents during my birthday and trying to get me to talk to her. However, I had been the one not making the choice of learning basic Hokkien to try to get closer to her, and to understand her language. She will remain forever in my heart, and my only regret is that I never tried to get to know her better, and forge a closer bond with her.

Daniel Tan (23)
3K

Controversial Statements: Round 2 - School (SCRAP THE CCTS!!!)

School is a place for education, but let's introduce a couple of controversial statements and see what we get...

Scrap the CCTs

The Class Common Tests (or CCTs) are currently an integral part in the life of a student. However, I feel that these tests are redundant and therefore should be scraped. In this essay, I will prove that the CCTs are unnecessary to help a student to learn and revise his lessons, give the students too much stress and also give students less time to spend with their families, and therefore, that CCTs should be scraped.

The CCTs are a method used by teachers to measure a child's proficiency in a certain subject. They help a student to find out his weaknesses in a particular subject and can be argued to help a student improve in the long-run. I, however, would beg to differ.

Firstly, I feel that the CCTs are redundant in that they do not help a student to revise his work very effectively. Usually, students are forced to study in order to do well for his or her examinations. However, it is very common for students to simply study what they need or the bare minimum to do well in the CCT and forget all of the information immediately after that. The purpose of teaching students is to equip them with life skills that they will be able to use later on in their life. Lessons can simply be taught with the teachers finding ways to help students remember or revise the information they need, and not through the ineffective CCTs that students are forced to study for and therefore, CCTs should be scraped.

Secondly, CCTs give students too much stress. Coupled with peer pressure from today's "kiasu" (afraid to lose) Singaporean society, the pressure from adults to do well in examinations can lead to students feeling extremely stressed and depressed, especially if they do badly. Examples can already be seen in Singapore, where some teenagers, in extreme cases, commit suicide after doing badly in too many examinations. Also, in today's hectic society, the students also have to manage their Co-Curricular Activities on top of all the studying, giving even more stress. Since CCTs provide this kind of negative and unnecessary stress for the students which might negatively affect the students, they should be scraped.

Lastly, the CCTs, or rather, studying for the CCTs, takes up too much of a student's time, and gives him extremely little time to interact with his parents, or even to exercise. A student who is forced to study in order to do well is usually holed up in his own study room, with no time to go out and have fun, lest he be distracted and do badly in his CCTs. He will also have a lot less time to exercise and as a result, might become very unhealthy. Since the CCTs take up to much of a student's time, most of which could have been spent on something better, like interacting with friends or family and exercising, they should be scraped.

In conclusion, the CCTs should be scraped from the annual school programme. It is true that they might help students improve, but most students simply study to pass, forgetting a majority of the information after they are done, thus making this only true in the short run. The CCTs may also negatively affect a student by giving him too much negative stress and can also affect his health (not exercising) or even his social life (not interacting with friends). Due to the amount of negative effects the CCTs have on students, we should scrap the CCTs.

(586 words)

Oops! I think I overshot the word limit by a bit too much - please excuse me, I just dumped whatever came to mind to form this essay and it seemed logical to me... and Mr Yuen (our SS teacher) said we should have 4 points in our essay, so there they are!


Dantwz

A 100 word example of an expository writing (Controversial Statements)

I'm back! And this time with an actual assigned piece of writing to do! The topic I chose to do is "Riches are for spending", using logos. Here goes...

All of us should adopt a habit of saving money, and not recklessly wasting it on things that we do not need, otherwise, we might just end up becoming miserable, and worse - in debt and bankrupt.

The reason why we earn money is so that we can afford only the things we really need. If a person spends money on everything he wants, he will soon run out of money and become bankrupt. On the other hand, if you save up your riches, you will be prepared for a rainy day and be able to survive an economic crisis as you will still have the means to purchase necessary items, even if you are retrenched. Hence, riches are not for spending on useless items, but for purchasing necessary items and also for saving.

(134 words)

Yes!!! I'm done! Time to sleep now... But before I go, here's a parting quote on my topic...

~~~

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.

-Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870), David Copperfield, 1849

~~~

Dantwz

What on EARTH is an expository??? (to me)

Well, according to our "favourite" encyclopedia, an expository writing is "a type of writing, the purpose of which is to inform, explain, describe, or define the author's subject to the reader. Expository text is meant to ‘posit’ information and is the most frequently used type of writing by students in colleges and universities. A well-written exposition remains focused on its topic and listing events in chronological order. Examples of this type of writing are cooking instructions, driving directions and instructions on performing a task. Key words such as first, after, next, then and last usually signal sequential writing. Personal pronouns may be used in such writing, if needed."

To me (i.e. according to my limited experience), expository writing is in essence a persuasive essay that is used to convince people or groups of people by providing:

• logical arguments (logos)
• an appeal to authority (ethos) or
• an emotional appeal (pathos)

In my opinion, logos (providing sound, strong, and logical arguments) is the strongest of the lot in terms of its ability to convince people. This is simply because the other two methods of persuasion are both examples of logical fallacies and one appeals only to our human emotions.

Ethos, or using a form of authority to convince someone, is an effective way of persuading. However, it commits the fallacy of "Appeal To Authority". According to the extremely reliable Wikipedia, an appeal to authority or argument by authority "is a type of argument in logic. It bases the truth value of an assertion on the authority, knowledge, expertise, or position of the source asserting it. It is also known as argument from authority, argumentum ad verecundiam (Latin: argument to respect) or ipse dixit (Latin: he himself said it). It is one method of obtaining propositional knowledge, but a fallacy in regard to syllogistic logic, because the validity of a syllogism is independent of the qualities of the source putting it forward. The converse case is an ad hominem attack: to imply that a claim is false because the asserter lacks authority or is otherwise objectionable in some way." Since there is no way that anyone can ascertain whether the source is reliable or not, it follows that ethos is not a very strong method of convincing people.

On the other hand, pathos, or the appeal to the human emotion commits the logical fallacy of Appeal To Emotion, where an argument is made due to the manipulation of emotions, rather than the use of valid reasoning. Examples include Appeal to Fear, Appeal to Spite and Appeal to flattery. You are so really, really handsome/pretty, so maybe you could agree with my point? If not, I'll just have to go to your house tonight and torture you! Therefore, pathos is not a very effective way to persuade people as well.

Logos, the use of strong and sound arguments to persuade a person, is the strongest method. This is simply because there is no logical fallacy associated with it (IF you provided a STRONG AND SOUND argument). Also, if a argument is sound, there would be no way to prove that its premises are false since a sound argument must have true premises. Also, since the conclusion must follow from/be supported by all of the true premises, the conclusion itself is usually true as well. Hence, logos is the strongest method (in an expository writing) of convincing people.

As you can probably see by now, my above 4 paragraphs (if read together) was an example of an expository writing (although it is missing a conclusion). *"Bonus"*: See if you can spot the methods I used!!! :D They should have been extremely obvious.

Anyway, back to my definition of an expository writing. The format for an expository writing piece should usually follow the hamburger model, with two buns (the introduction and conclusion) and the meat patties and lettuce in between (the three arguments).

Each argument should usually follow the following format (used by many students in their Literature/History/Geography essays:

• Point
• Elaboration
• Examples/Evidence
• Link

This format is universal and can be used with all methods of persuasion.

Alright, that's all for now. Thank you for reading through my very long blog post :D. I hope to see you again soon! (in my next blog post)


Dantwz

Welcome

Hi guys!
Welcome to my English assignment blog on expository writing! This is the place where I'll be posting the relevant entries that were assigned to us by our evil English teachers!!! :D (no offense)


Dantwz
(Daniel Tan Wei Zheng)