During last Thursday's lecture we were presented with statistics about teen pregnancy rates. I was so surprised by the fact that abortions, miscarriages, and stillbirths aren't included in the percentages. In essence, teen pregnancy rates are teen birth rates.

Being aware of what is included in statistical data is important to professional development. A professional must know what the defined fields are in a statistic so that they know how to interpret the statistic. Like we discussed in class, looking at the decrease in teen pregnancy percentages is deceiving. We may think the decrease in teen pregnancies is due to an increase in contraceptive use; however, when we learned that abortions are not included in that statistic, we had to reevaluate our hypothesis.

In my professional development, I'm going to be much more aware of instances like these. I'm going to question statistics because I want to know what is really being presented to me. It is so easy to take something without questioning it, but if I don't question things, how will I ever find Truth?