Alcohol Education Classes - OP/ED

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Postby aids » 2010.01.29 (08:15)

I wrote this for English, tell me what you think:
An Alternate Approach to Reducing Underage Alcohol Consumption
The legal drinking age has been at the epicenter of hundreds of debates in the past several years. There have been numerous discussions that the manner in which teenagers are educated about alcohol is faulty and one of the leading reasons underage drinking is so widespread. The current socially accepted alcohol education for children begins early in their lives through alcoholic relatives or friends. As they get older, they meet more and more people who drink alcohol, but very few of them take any classes about the effects of alcohol on the body. In junior high and high school they may be peer pressured into drinking, and almost half high school seniors will end up regularly drinking alcohol in college. This process means that the majority of teenagers will not receive any formal education on alcohol and its effects it has on a person's judgment, reaction time, and self-control.

If a person applied this logic to a driver's education class, the results would be disastrous. Nobody would have a clue how to properly drive, they would not know any of the safely regulations or rules, and they certainly could not be able to perform this basic task regularly. Luckily driver's ed courses have been refined over the past several decades and for the most part driving remains a safe activity. But it's not so much the activity that needs to be reformed, but the education. Motor Vehicle Division offices across the country have a regulated list of requirements which a person must complete before they receive their learner's permit or license. These licenses have expiration dates and can be suspended or revoked depending on one's actions. Our country's transportation system would fall into ruin if drivers were not regulated with such laws.

So then how can a person expect a society in which alcohol is the third most consumed beverage to function without an adequate knowledge of alcohol? In all honesty it cannot and will not unless steps are taken to educate our teens and young adults about the dangers of binge drinking, drinking and driving, and doing other activities while intoxicated. John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, has laid out a plan that would take the steps of learning to drive and apply them to the legal consumption of alcohol. McCardell states that, "Alcohol education is what we need and that is a very important part of [my] proposal. (Stahl 4)" He proposes that teenagers attend mandatory classes in high school which would teach them about the chemistry of alcohol and how it affects the body, the physical consequences of alcohol abuse, and even have them sit in on Alcoholics Anonymous sessions to hear for themselves the stories of what alcohol does to a person. Then the teens would have to pass an exam in order to receive their license to drink.

McCardell also pushes for the legal drinking age to be lowered to eighteen, asking "Why don't we trust these young adults to make the same kind of responsible decisions about alcohol that we believe them capable of making in the voting booth, in the jury box, on the battlefield? (Stahl 3)" Among the things an eighteen-year-old gains with his or her age are the ability to marry, to join the military, to vote, to serve on a jury, and to enter into written contracts. All of these are important and demand a high level of maturity, but drinking alcohol is just as sought after. Many teenagers drink alcohol because they feel it is a sign of maturity, but they have not learned how to control their consumption. With McCardell's new program all teenagers will be given an equal chance to learn about alcohol and receive their license. If we can manage to control alcohol's snowballing use among teenagers, drunk driving accidents will decrease, along with teen pregnancies and crimes.

All of McCardell's ideas sound both effective and easy to manipulate, but the real question that remains is whether these classes would be supported by the public, and more importantly, the taxpayer's money. I feel that a good way to fund these classes would be to redirect the alcohol sales tax to a fund for alcohol education classes in American high school. It would be a relatively simple change, but it would have a ripple effect on the alcohol industry. Companies who target teen audiences would be revealed and restricted from their sales, or have some of their income redirected to the aforementioned class fund. Drinking would not be seen as such a coming-of-age activity but instead would begin to set apart those with self-control and moderation. All of the teenagers who regularly drink will learn how to control their consumption, and will teach their friends and family the same control. Many of today's alcohol-related problems would be decreased or diminished with the implementation of a national alcohol education class, and I hope that someday I find myself participating in one.

[align=center][spoiler=Works Cited]Stahl, Lesley. "The Debate On Lowering The Drinking Age". CBS News. 28 Jan 2010
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/ ... 3571.shtml? tag=contentMain;contentBody>

"Drinking Age ProCon.org". ProCon.org. 28 Jan 2010 <http://drinkingage.procon.org/>.

"Bottled water now second most consumed drink in United States.". AllBusiness.com, Inc. 28 Jan 2010 <http://www.allbusiness.com/consumer-pro ... 301-1.html>.[/spoiler][/align]
Last edited by aids on 2010.01.29 (21:09), edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Lachesis » 2010.01.29 (14:12)

This... ...I completely agree. I hadn't thought of the license to drink idea, but I've always been in support of more education in schools.
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Postby scythe » 2010.01.29 (15:15)

I have long been in favor of something like this, actually.
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Postby Tanner » 2010.01.29 (17:36)

More education is a good idea. Having non-members sit in on AA meetings is a horrible idea. A license to drink is a marginally useful tool that would cost more money that I think it's worth.
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Postby Luminaflare » 2010.01.29 (19:00)

I understand the class room stuff but it shouldn't need a class room test for a license. A good solution to any sale over 18 would be a singular card which is scanned (like a bank card or whatever, hell it could be put on to your bank card) to see what licenses you have, to get a license you just fill out the forms when your old enough and send it off. This way if you're found to be selling licensed products to minors and/or people without a license it could be revoked. This partially gets rid of the main way minors get a hold of alcohol (Someone old enough to buy the stuff buys it for them) as well as other things such as tobacco products, 18 rated media etc.

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Postby Skyling » 2010.01.29 (19:43)

Lesson one, class! The first thing alcohol impairs is your...
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Postby blackson » 2010.01.29 (23:00)

Did you guys not have a health class at Junior High? I had a class every year that dealt with the affects of drugs and alcohol...O.o

Edit: Post 666 in an Alcohol Education thread, how ironic.

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Postby otters~1 » 2010.01.30 (17:28)

Blackson wrote:Did you guys not have a health class at Junior High? I had a class every year that dealt with the affects of drugs and alcohol...O.o

Edit: Post 666 in an Alcohol Education thread, how ironic.
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Postby SkyPanda » 2010.02.01 (15:40)

Skyling wrote:Lesson one, class! The first thing alcohol impairs is your...
Aha that is priority-one info right there

I strongly support alcohol education but I reckon it needs to be more practical.

Looking out for your mates, managing aggression and knowing when to call it a night (not drinking in moderation. Just calling it a night somewhere between absolutely wasted and unconscious) are some of the most important lessons when it comes to drinking, yet you will never learn them in a classroom.

A good alcohol education program needs to be built on the acceptance that teenagers drink alcohol, and they do it because they /want/ to. There's quite a few upstairs who aren't prepared to accept that their version of a perfect society doesn't match reality, and education programmes can suffer for that.


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