Leon Dash takes what people say into account, and if it doesn't sound right, he'll openly contest it.

His observation skills are so noticeable that they led the University journalism professor into an investigative series that is now his book, When Children Want Children. Dash gave a lecture on both the book and how he formulated the idea for the series, at the University YMCA on Wednesday afternoon. The lecture was part of the Brown v. Board commemoration, as a section of the Reading Brown Series.

Dash is also a Swanlund chair, the highest endowed title at the University, according to the Office of the Provost Web site. He said the idea for The Washington Post news series came when he heard a statistic from a friend about young, black, single mothers that he thought was untrue — that 53 percent of all children born to single mothers are those born to black teenage mothers.

"I thought (my friend) was wrong," he said. "I was looking for answers."

Dash then spent a year researching and living in Washington Highlands, an impoverished Washington, D.C. neighborhood where he said the rate of teenage childbearing was the highest. He invited 22 families to be interviewed and included six of them in his series.

He said that unlike the young people he grew up with who were immature about their bodies and were not given adequate sex education, the youth he interviewed were very sophisticated — even at 11- and 12- years-old — about their bodies, sex and birth control.

Dash said he learned that the reason the teenagers he observed were having children was not by accident, by being caught up in the heat of passion, or through ignorance.

"They were seeking to have a child because they saw it as an arena of achievement," he said. "It was a rite of passage into adulthood. It was their way of saying, 'I'm grown now.' I was surprised."

Dash said when the series was published in 1986, he received some praise for it but also a barrage of criticism, especially from middle-class blacks. He said about one-third of his responses were critical, but he responded to everyone who criticized him.

"I responded to all saying that the situation was having a debilitating effect and that it was time to grapple with it. The criticism went on and on. I was a traitor to the race, but I was fulfilling the reporter's role," he said. "A lot of them didn't understand."

Nicole Harbour, a junior in communications, said one of her friends is a young mother, and Dash's lecture opened her eyes to the realities of teenage parenting.

"It gives me some insight into how my friend feels and what she goes through every day," she said. "I think that it takes away your childhood and time to discover more about yourself. I know a lot of young single mothers who do well, but you should wait until you are older."

Betsy Smith and Ruth Myers-Dunn, both social workers from Urbana, said the early childhood program they work in involves approximately 52 percent black youth. Smith said she read the book because she believes it is applicable to her job. She also said it challenged her to help children see their options.

"I hope that they do have other choices," Smith said. "I want them to see that there are other roads."

Myers-Dunn said she was looking for answers — she wanted to know what they could do because the same problem is prevalent in the Urbana area. She said Dash exposed some of the myths of why teens get pregnant, such as ignorance.

"We see the same thing here," she said. "There is a skewed reality."

Smith agreed. She said Dash was very clear that the problem is not based on a lack of sexual education, but she also added that the problem reaches beyond the black community.

"It is not just an African-American problem, it is an American problem," she said.