Dating

In class we have been talking a lot about marriage prep and dating. I find it fascinating by how off our culture is when it comes to dating. We seem to skip the casual dating step of the process. I don’t understand why we do this it just does not make sense to me. The absence of casual dating is something that has been bothering me a lot in my own dating life. Growing up I was taught to date casually first and to date lots of people, but when I came to college that was not the way things were done here. It seems that people hang out and then skip to the courtship stage forgetting the dating part. Why do we do that? For a while I was so confused it was driving me nuts! I did not understand why someone would try to hold my hand on a first or second date. Or why someone would get upset if I went on one date with one guy on one night and a date with another guy on another night. At one point I thought that something was wrong with me, but now I realize that I was right. We are suppose to date and date lots of people, but for some reason that is not what is going on.  I think it is a real problem and may play a part in why divorce rates are so high.