The first article "A Host of Trouble" by Emma Schwartz details the thorny issue of parental responsibility for their teenagers' illegal alcohol consumption. Schwartz does a decent job of outlining the problem of excessive underage drinking and one of the current politically motivated legal solutions to the problem. One of the most surprising claims in the article is that there is no research on the effectiveness of social shelter laws. The purpose of these social shelter laws is to hold parents or other adults criminally responsible for the actions of adolescents under their care or influence, in an effort to help curb uncontrolled drinking by those who are underage . While the effectiveness of these new shelter laws is still somewhat uncertain, law enforcement is turning to these laws as a tool to combat the leading cause of death among adolescents: drug-related fatalities. alcohol. Polly Shulman paints a bleak, but not hopeless, portrait of current marriage trends in the article 'Great Expectations.' Shulman writes sardonically that “marriage is dead” due to the ubiquitous search for soul mates that currently permeates our culture. Shulman does an excellent job of gathering information from various authors, sociologists, and other experts to detail how committed marriages falter too often because our culture is obsessed with finding the perfect match. Shulman also exposes the cultural pressure to have it all and the desire for perfection that doesn't exist. This notion of the perfect spouse trumps the reality that all relationships and marriages are imperfect and require work and a healthy dose of common sense. Bill Taverner's article on abstinence recovery in sex education is full of common sense and clarity. Taverna......half sheet......I understand that the issue is complicated and thorny. There are considerations to make for different religious beliefs. Yet these considerations should be the exception, not the guiding principle behind the general sex education curriculum taught to our students. At the same time, we must be careful not to discount the importance of abstinence as an aspect of the overall discussion about sexuality education in terms of the curriculum. The way we, as a society and culture, continue to allow politicians at the extremes of both ideologies to hijack these important issues is outrageous. I applaud Taverner's balanced assessment of the issue and his impartial approach in evaluating both sides of the issue. I also hope that his advocacy for more comprehensive sex education and a paradigm shift on the concept of abstinence becomes the norm..