Today is the first day of school, my youngest son is starting high school this year. A milestone in anyone’s life and now the goal is to get him through it in one piece. Those of us with struggling teens in our families know this can be a difficult task. After having one troubled teen I do have my guard up with this son, his experiences have always been much different. But the exposure to alcohol and drugs are the realities of having a teen in high school. This week the New York Times printed an article by the Associated Press College presidents seek debate on drinking age – NYTimes.com.
Controlling Binge Drinking of Underage Teens
The article states that college presidents from some of the nation’s best known universities are asking lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age to 18. They claim by lowering the drinking age it will discourage “binge drinking” on college campuses. Looking back to my college years, I don’t know how lowering the age would discourage binge drinking, I would say more control over the fraternities and their activities may help with the binge drinking on college campuses. Lowering the drinking age to 18 would also affect the high school campuses, since many high schoolers are 18 year old.
Some argue there is no difference in maturity between an 18 year old and a 21 year old. That is hard for me to believe, everyone matures at different ages, but a 21 year old has three more years of life experience than an 18 year old. I question our lawmakers changing the age of adulthood from 21 to 18. I would have rather they changed the age when you can legally carry a gun or be drafted into the military.
The group that is leading this campaign is called The Amethyst Initiative . Why the Amethyst as a symbol?
The purple gemstone amethyst was widely believed to be an antidote to the negative effects of intoxication. In Ancient Greece, drinking vessels and jewelry were often made of amethyst and used during feasts and celebrations to ward off drunkenness and to promote moderation.
My reaction to this initiative, the school presidents are being lazy and don’t want to deal with the growing problem. If they change the age and make the campuses an even playing field they don’t have to do the work of controlling the students that are underage and create consequences. Alternately, as parents wouldn’t it be nice if all our kids were the same and you did not have to treat them as individuals, with individual needs? Instead of dealing with the “underage drinking problem” higher education has evolved into one size fits all.
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