Mom’s School of Drinking
The Amethyst Initiative is in the news and on the blogs (here and here) lately. I think the Amethyst Initiative’s goals are good.
A culture of dangerous, clandestine “binge-drinking”—often conducted off-campus—has developed.
Alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students.
Adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer.
By choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law.
What I got from their website was that the lowering of the limit would only be one piece and what needed to be in place was a whole society response to teens and drinking. They seem to be pushing for an educational campaign.
Choose Responsibility supports a series of changes to treat 18, 19 and 20 year-olds as the young adults the law otherwise says they are. Current drinking laws infantilize young adults. We should not be surprised, then, by infantile behavior from otherwise responsible adults.
We support a series of changes that will allow 18-20 year-old adults to purchase, posses and consume alcoholic beverages.
We propose a multi-faceted approach that combines education, certification, and provisional licensing for 18-20 year-old high school graduates who choose to consume alcohol.
We envision an overarching program that combines appropriate incentive and reward for responsible, lawful behavior by adolescents, and punitive measures for illegal, irresponsible behavior.
A educational and licensing system - I’m having a hard time envisioning that…especially considering the privatization of drivers’ education in our state. How to regulate the local School of Drinking???
What the Amethyst Initiative really needs is parents teaching mature behavior, from drinking, to finances, to drinking, from the home. You can’t legislate responsibility. I, too, am in support of changing the drinking age to 18 or 19. I think by the age of 21, many “children” are long gone from the family home and parents aren’t as able to be aware of alcohol abuse. In our home, our kids have seen their parents enjoy small amounts of alcohol at meals or in the evenings. We even let them have a small taste now and then when they were younger (age 9 or 10 -whatever age they became more curious about it).
I don’t allow my 16 year old to drink yet, but I do allow my 19 year old to have a beer or glass of wine with us in our house if she will not be doing any driving the rest of the night. I hadn’t planned on doing this with either of my kids, but I changed my plans in preparation for my daughter’s trip to Europe last spring. There she was allowed to drink, with parental permission given to the tour guides (good Lutheran people I knew and trusted as her teachers for 4 years). She has handled it well, both in Europe and at home. I really expect little problem from her even as she heads off to the infamous town of Mankato (where there have been way too many deaths due to extreme consumption of alcohol by 21 year olds at the state university there. My son’s situation will be different because he is an athlete and is prohibited to consume alcohol in season by the state’s high school athletics governing board. He will be allowed to have a beer or wine off-season, but I haven’t started this practice with him yet.
Don’t assume we take alcohol abuse lightly. One side of our family has severe alcoholic tendencies, so I have consciously chosen my strategies of learning to communicate rather than stuff your emotions, exploring other outlets for frustrations and learning how and when to use alcohol. This all happens in the home! It absolutely won’t happen by chance at college (or wherever a person is a full three years after graduating from high school).
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