Temperance May be an Answer

My wife, Colleen, my mother, my sister and I recently spent two weeks on a tour of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. It was a wonderful, if exhausting tour, and the last thing on my mind was my monthly column; that is, until my sister, willing to buy a copy of The Independent just to find out if the Packers had won the day before, asked me if I wanted the paper's section on education. At first, I was intrigued that the paper would carry an entire section about education. It seems in the USA that education articles are often limited to labor disputes and state budgets (or the lack thereof).
Once I started reading The Independent's articles, I realized that it is, indeed, a global village. Britain struggles with the same problems as we do: dealing with immigrant children who speak little or no English, providing financial aid for bright but poor students who deserve to further their education, and, most significantly, teenage drinking.
Studies exist that suggest that European teens do not have the drinking problems of their American counterparts. Other studies claim the opposite. From the little I was able to learn while in England, I lean toward the second group. Many of Britain's teens, it seems, are indulging in "binge drinking," consuming a significant amount of alcohol in a short period of time. A teen who was interviewed used one of the oldest excuses around: "It's part of our culture."
We all know that our kids are drinking, some at an alarmingly early age. Forget marijuana; alcohol is the gateway drug because it's cheaper than pot and easier to get--and many kids regard its consumption as acceptable because their parents consume it.
Educating children about alcohol begins in the home. Parents model behaviors for their children from the time they're born. Your children walk into school on their very first day having been given many lessons on such things as anger management, violence, addiction, compassion, tolerance, prejudice and love. If alcohol is consumed in your family, how does that consumption affect your child? If adult gatherings in your house result in drunkenness and boorish behavior, that's the model your kids will use as a benchmark. If alcohol is consumed responsibly, if children are shown that drinking carries a responsibility to oneself and others, then they will see excessive drinking as not "normal."
The schools do not teach or encourage kids to abuse alcohol. Health classes continually emphasize the dangers of drinking. To some young people, this reinforces what their parents have been telling them. For others, the warnings fall on skeptical ears. After all, who is a young person more likely to emulate, parents or teachers?
While it may sound like educational heresy, I think temperance as well as abstinence should be part of the curriculum, always under the proviso that underage drinking is illegal. It is a noble, yet impractical, goal to convince every student not to participate in an unwise activity. Common sense tells us that it is in the nature of young people to experiment, to push the envelope, even in the best of families. If a student's family does not provide a model for responsible drinking, shouldn't someone? It seems to me that teaching temperance might save more young lives than teaching abstinence alone.
Finally, the law needs to be more aggressive in dealing with adult offenders. I suspect that more teen deaths occur from driving under the influence than from drinking alone. What message does society send when someone is picked up on his fourteenth DUI? Parents who are unwise enough to host drinking parties for their kids and their friends under the assumption that they can keep the kids "safe" should be subjected to severe fines and probation. There can be no worse lesson for parents to teach than it is appropriate to circumvent the law for one's own pleasure and convenience.
That underage drinking in our society is a serious problem is obvious. Parents, teachers and law enforcement people are capable of great creativity and resourcefulness. Perhaps it is time for them to take a fresh approach to this problem, one that better addresses reality as well as idealism.