How can we encourage adolescents?

I am a Health Studies major and although I'm not 100% sure of what direction I want to go with my career I really would like to work with children and teens. I think that we should start educating at a younger age. There are 11 and 12 year old girls getting pregnant these days and we don't even start sex education until high school. Or at least that's when I first got a sex education class. Some schools now don’t even give sex education classes. I know about all about the controversy going on with sex education but I think that it should be a mandatory class. If we do not increase the education of STD's (STIs) and condom use disease and pregnancy will only increase.

As for diet, the schools are doing a great job at providing healthier lunches, but we need to improve what they eat at home as well. Parents need to be more aware of what they are feeding and buying their kids. I know it’s harder now days when you have both parents working but you need to find time to make healthy food choices.

Exercise is a problem in schools and homes. Schools use to have mandatory P.E. Now not only can kids get out of the class but some have cut P.E and recess. Now you talk to parents and they say their kids get exercise at school, and the teachers say the kids should get exercise at home. Kids need both. There are some programs like Jump rope for Heart that are great and help get kids motivated but we need more. We need community centers that are free for kids to come and play. We need better parks for kids to play on and a sidewalk that goes around the play sets. That way while the kids are playing the moms can walk around and watch their kids.

This is something that is very important to me. And if we do not start doing something about kids eating and exercising habits we are going to have a load of problems in the future. We are already starting to see kids with type 2 diabetes and kids that are obese and we need to fix it. We need to start in the communities to better facilities so there are no excuses.