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lunabee34My students are writing arguments right now, and they've been reading the essays in their comp textbook about whether or not we should lower the drinking age in the United States.
Here are a few quotes from these essays:
Ruth C. Engs "Why the Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: An Opinion Based on Research"
Based upon the fact that our current prohibition laws are not working, alternative approaches from the experience of other, and more ancient cultures, who do not have these problems need to be tried. Groups such as Italians, Greeks, Chinese and Jews, who have few drinking related problems, tend to share some common characteristics. Alcohol is neither seen as a poison or a magic potion, there is little or no social pressure to drink, irresponsible behavior is never tolerated, young people learn at home from their parents and from other adults how to handle alcohol in a responsible manner, there is societal consensus on what constitutes responsible drinking.
Robert Voas "There's No Benefit to Lowering the Drinking Age"
I keep hearing the same refrains: “If you’re old enough to go to war, you should be old enough to drink,” or “the drinking-age law just increases the desire for forbidden fruit,” or “lower crash rates are due to tougher enforcement, not the 21 law,” or “Europeans let their kids drink, so they learn how to be more responsible,” or finally, “I did it when I was a kid, and I’m OK.”
I'm really curious to hear about this issue from the perspective of those of you who live in other countries. Do Europeans have fewer drinking problems than Americans, or is that a myth? Or is it more complicated than either of those answers? What about the culture groups that Engs mentions?
Here are a few quotes from these essays:
Ruth C. Engs "Why the Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: An Opinion Based on Research"
Based upon the fact that our current prohibition laws are not working, alternative approaches from the experience of other, and more ancient cultures, who do not have these problems need to be tried. Groups such as Italians, Greeks, Chinese and Jews, who have few drinking related problems, tend to share some common characteristics. Alcohol is neither seen as a poison or a magic potion, there is little or no social pressure to drink, irresponsible behavior is never tolerated, young people learn at home from their parents and from other adults how to handle alcohol in a responsible manner, there is societal consensus on what constitutes responsible drinking.
Robert Voas "There's No Benefit to Lowering the Drinking Age"
I keep hearing the same refrains: “If you’re old enough to go to war, you should be old enough to drink,” or “the drinking-age law just increases the desire for forbidden fruit,” or “lower crash rates are due to tougher enforcement, not the 21 law,” or “Europeans let their kids drink, so they learn how to be more responsible,” or finally, “I did it when I was a kid, and I’m OK.”
I'm really curious to hear about this issue from the perspective of those of you who live in other countries. Do Europeans have fewer drinking problems than Americans, or is that a myth? Or is it more complicated than either of those answers? What about the culture groups that Engs mentions?
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Date: 2010-11-05 12:35 pm (UTC)That's a great point about the British Isles. All I have is anecdotal evidence, but I have a couple friends who lived in Wales for more than a year and heavy, heavy drinking (and the requisite being stupid) was definitely part of living there for them.