I am sure you've seen UT was in the news for a recent Harvard Study, claiming they were ranked highest in the nation for online porn subscriptions. To be sure, there are problems with porn in UT, as well as many other states. But, as you might expect, I have something to say about this study. The following are thoughts of mine and my dearest friend upon discussing the study. Read on if you dare...
1) How reliable is Eldeman's study? He fails to mention how he retrieved the zip codes. Are these zip codes based on broadband/cable bills or credit cards (if it was indeed porn-for-purchase)? As much of my sad work experience with juvenile delinquents has taught me, most internet porn is free. They tell me you can "sign up" to access it by an online profile, much like MySpace. In that case, how many porn addicts really use their true zip code?
2) What are Utah laws on the availability of pornography in other outlets (e.g., live, newsstand, etc.)? What is available in the local cable subscriptions? I'm betting that both of these are far more limited in places such as Utah as opposed to California simply because the overwhelming demand isn't there to carry the stuff. Note that one of the highest percentages for accessing online smut in Utah is in Sevier County, where ALL services are pretty limited. The upshot is that you have a certain segment of the population who is always going to want this kind of stuff and if it isn't readily available in their community, they'll access the internet to find it. What this study seems to leave out is that yes, more likely than not, Utahns have chosen to legislate morality and in doing so have caused a certain percentage of their population to have to seek it out in other venues, which wouldn't occur in other states. My bet is that the more conservative states who have chosen to put constitutionally-acceptable limitations on access to and availability of pornography would also have "higher" rates of internet access to it. I also would note that the identities of the other states, except Montana, have been omitted. Why? Probably to gloss over the fact that the percentages are so close that's it's not even worth mentioning.
3) This study smacks of a biased fight against the recent Prop 8 support work Utah and the LDS church paricipated in. Had this high-use porn percentage been reported in any other pro-Prop 8 state, would there even be a story? I quote Edelman's own words who, by the way, fails to mention any of the other "defense of marriage" states.
"Subscriptions are slightly more prevalent in states that have enacted conservative legislation on sexuality," Edelman writes. In the 27 states where "defense of marriage" amendments have been adopted, there were 11 percent more porn subscribers than in other states, he reports. Use is higher also in states where more people agree with the statement "I never doubt the existence of God."
4) If you believe Edelman's description of his own study (the italicized portion above), the conclusions he has reached must necessarily lead to the inevitable yet fatally flawed conclusion that people with an unwavering belief in God are, or are far more likely to be, porn addicts. I highly doubt it.
There. I've said it. Now you know my thoughts and feelings on the matter. That said, I am STILL moving home to Utah in mid-June. I miss my family, and I've been away for far too long. This last scare with dad's stroke and current rehab at home have taught me that I'll take the Utah Mormon culture "quirks", if it means I can be with the ones I love the most and live in a place that isn't tilting towards Amsterdam with legalization of everything. *grin*
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Utah in the news?
California in trouble?
As you may know, I have spent the last seven years of my career in California; the last two as a Vice-Principal, experiencing enough social malaise to last a lifetime. I most assuredly have enough fodder to write a book or, at the very least, a screenplay/ script. While I was working in Utah as a teacher, I used to think it was unforgiveable to be paid so little, and to be so "disrepected" as a professional. Boy howdy, have my thoughts and priorities changed!
As I've joined the ranks of public school administrators in the largest welfare state in the Union, I have seen more waste, more abuse/ misuse of taxpayer funds than I ever imagined possible. (In fact, I could write another book just on Catagorical Fund/ State & Federal Program waste.) It's ironic to think that I came off my mission and started the Masters of Social Work Program at BYU, only to walk away because I saw horrible discrepencies with the State/Federal "Welfare" Programs, as compared to church "Workfare" programs I taught/ administered while a missionary in Argentina. It was during my 18 mos. there that I developed a love of teaching and working with those who had so little, but who were so willing to learn. To be sure, I was young and naive to believe that everyone would want to learn as much and work as hard as those campesinos did. 
After fighting with a professor or two, I purposefully walked out on the Social Work Program, because I saw its built-in flaw. Any system that gives out something for nothing will never be able to instill in its participants the self-respect needed to continually fuel their successes. So, I became a teacher and, eventually, an administrator. Fifteen years later, what am I doing? SOCIAL WORK.
Maybe what I'm trying to say is that while Utah has its problems, California has a lion's share of the same issues, in addition to others. In fact, these issues seem to dwarf those often mentioned about Utah. I tend to write/journal/blog as a way to de-stress from my job. I would like to share the following quotidian activities with you. They represent the not-so-out-of-the-ordinary days like today. I only wish that I were exaggerating as to what I did today:
1) Translated yet another attendance / disciplinary meeting into Spanish (I'm the only administrator at our site who can) for parents who flat out refuse to take the free English classes we offer. I beg them to, just so they can navigate in the same system as their children. Then I wouldn't have to keep reporting to the parents that: "Your child has been involved in messaging over MySpace, sending gang affiliated info, which has put your child's ingress/egress to school at risk." Or, "It would not only benefit your own employment opportunities to learn English, but those in your child's future as you help them succeed in school and, eventually, the community at large."
2) Signed my weekly batch of truancy letters and sent my School Resource Officer/ Truancy Cop on home visits to verify residency. It is more than common to have families fail to send their children to school until they hear they might be taken to court and their welfare check suspended. Yesterday, I had a discussion with Sadie Clark's mother who refused to attend 3 prior scheduled meetings with me about her daughter's truancy issues. She told me: "Go ahead and take me to court. I won't show. What are they going to do? Throw me in jail? Take away my food stamps? I have another baby on the way and 2 on SSI. I'm good, honey."
During the course of the last two years, I've had probably 2-3 dozen conversations just like that one.
3) Dealt with a student on student sexual harrassment case. "Teabagging" (definintion #2) Boys in PE class, who claim they learned it on the popular T.V program "Jackass", then saw their brother do it to his girlfriend while mom was watching and laughing.
4) Suspended two boys for a fight. One kid punched out the other beacause he passed around naked, pornographic pictures in class of a quite large woman--claiming it was the other dude's older sister whom he had sex with last week. (Turns out the sister part was a lie, and that the boy had simply ripped the pics off from his dad's stash of porn. Dad admitted he doesn't try to hide it from his boys.)
5) Cleaned up last week's case of four pre-teens "Sexting" during school hours. This is a "new" craze seen on the "O.C", "Gossip Girls", "Secret Life of the American Teenager" that you may have heard about? Some states are putting kids up for porn charges with this type of offense. (This was already happening on my campus last year. I suspended half a dozen kids and expelled two for engaging in this behavior.)
6) Suspended, and will eventually expell, two kids for posession of / furnishing marijuana & related objects. One kid was manufacturing roach clip prototypes in Art class, then selling them on campus. His friend (entrepreneurial business partner) brought the weed to school from his parents' home plantation. Sad, but I don't know how much longer schools can fight this type of behavior when Assembly Bill 390 could pass. Then maybe my job will entail dealing with 16 yr olds who are working through Heroin detox (like my colleagues at the high school)?
