girlfriend or a boyfriend

wow, what is our culture and religion coming to? if your boy/girl came home and told u they liked some boy/girl and ''can i go on a date with them?" you would encourage and allow that? what would happen if after say 4-5 dates to the movies or park your boy/girl start getting serious/strong feelings for this person? its not exactly like your looking to marry them off at that teenage age, right, so in essence your tempting them to get too attached to something that cant be permanent. i feel thats not only cruel but also very unhealthy.

learning about the other gender doesnt have to be done on ''dates''. it can be easily done during 8 hour long school days where the boys and girls are together ALL DAY LONG. in my opinion, thats more than enough time.

i agree! yikes, reading some of these answers is scaring me...and its answered my question of "what is the islamic world coming too??"

very nicely said :)