Your colleagues, Lisa and Camila came up with this topic for you to consider as it is one that directly affects you as well. Here are the articles suggested by them:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26271328/,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/18/usa,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20249460/, and
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/LegalDrinkingAge.html.
As for your task: read the articles, build your 20-word list, and share you opinion. You are all doing a good job so far.
The deadline for this topic is next Friday, October 24.
Take care,
Kinga
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13 comments:
Lowering drinking age is the most talked topic on any university campus. Everyone wants to have fun during the college. like it is shown in the statistic that there is no control over the under age drinking in the university. students will do whatever they can to drink. therefore, they spend more of their energy in "how to buy liquor?" than to study. this is inevitable that they stop drinking till they are 21. moreover, if they get alcohol poisoning, they are scared to call for an ambulance because they know that they will behind the bars for that. this causes more problems to them.
however, on the other side, lowering under age drinking can increase the fatalities in the car accidents, if you think from a parent point of view, they will not be able to sleep peacefully if they know that their son/daughter is drinking and driving. therefore, i would suggest that there should be a compulsory class in the high school senior year based on drinking. it should be somewhat like sex education. it should spread awareness on how to drink and what liquor can do to your body. we know that it is inevitable then, why not to teach them how to do it the way it is supposed to be done.
This topic is kind of funny for me. While reading the sources for this topic, I couldn't understand why presidents of universities are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus. It is funny, isn't it? This law is not perfect, but restrictions in drinking age really save lives of hundreds teenagers in the US, and it is proven by statistics. I am pretty sure that after canceling this law, university campuses will be much worse than it is now. The other question is why the law doesn't work perfectly, and students use clandestine binge-drinking. In my opinion the problem is not in the restriction itself, but in the moral education of students. It is better for university presidents to work out ways to deal with the problem on their campus rather than try to eliminate the working law. If students will have a different interesting idea how to spend their weekends, rather than get drunk at a party, it will work better. So in my opinion I believe that university staff should find ways to encourage students to live a normal life. Providing new and free activities for students on campus like sport competitions, music concerts, cinema, etc. will be great!
I am confident the idea of the existing law making the situation with alcohol problem worse is definitely not true and doesn't make sense at all.
But on the other hand if you want to get drunk, you will do it anyway, even if you are 16 or 15, neglecting any law.
I am very thankful that existing law at least allows me not to observe drunk students everywhere around the streets, and it proves that it works.
It was interesting to know that there are all knids of opinions agree or disagree about this issue. I read from the newspaper at the beginning of the semester that the federal government is reconsidering the legal drinking age for youth. Some student think that it should be the student's choice to decied whether to drink or not, and since that they are legal to vote, they should be able to drink. However, on the other hand, some think that lower the drinking age to 18 may lead to increasing illegal drinking in high school. If that happens, it would be terrifying. However, Compare to the other countries, U.S. has the lowest drinking age and a lot of kids are breaking the law. To over-regulate should not be the right way to control drinking problem in college-students.
Personally, I never desired to drink that much before I came to U.S. It was usual for me to buy alcohol for my parents whenever we were holding a party or having friends over for dinner. Little kids can buy alcohol as long as they remeber to bring money with them. However, when I realize that drinking for me was suddenly forbiddened, my curiosity and desire push me to expect that I could drink. Over-drinking among kids might also caused by over-regulation, they want to drink as much as they can since they only get a few chances and they are not allowed. The prohibition of doing so make it more attracting to youth, cause they all ahve an adventuous mind.It's like if you are trying to trape a bird in a cage, it will fly as far away as it can once it got a chance. however, pegions do come back everyday even when you are not keeping them in a cage.
As mentioned in the articles, the legal drinking age of 21 years in the United States is the highest in the world. A law was passed in the early 1980's mostly because of the increasing rates of alcohol related car accidents and deaths. Apparently, this law has decreased these car accidents rates but still, bench drinking and other alcohol related deaths rates have increased dramatically over the past decades, specially in college campuses.
I think it's ironic how the country with the highest legal drinking age, is also the country with the highest recorded alcohol related fatalities. Even though I support the colleges working towards lowering the drinking age, from my perspective, the problem doesn't start when kids go off to college on their own for the first time. Where I'm from, the legal drinking age is 18, although most kids start drinking at a younger age at home and with friends. Even though to some people this doesn't seem ethical, this allows kids to try alcoholic beverages in safer places and usually with the supervision of an adult. When you are introduced to something, like alcohol, in an earlier age, you can act mature around it and use it in a more responsible manner. If parents prohibit alcohol to their children, never exposing them to it and fearing it will be harmful, it is destined for their kids to become rebellious and part of underage irresponsible binge drinking. It all comes down to wanting the things that you can't have.
How can we expect teenagers entering college to behave maturely around alcohol if it's something that was always prohibited and has become their main entertainment at social activities? Off course they are going to go wild about it.
By teaching responsible drinking at an early age and allowing teenagers to drink in safe public places, they can consider it maturely as a normal subject.
As the articles well said, the higher drinking age isn't stopping teens from drinking. It's just moving it to more hidden unsafe places. And also, by teaching responsible drinking, teens can also understand the important factors of driving under the influence of alcohol and how it should always be avoided. It's like hitting two birds with one stone, since the alcohol related car accidents may also decrease.
It is quite surprising to know that lowering the drinking age back to 19 is being considered as a measure to reduce the abuse of alcohol among young people. Although I have always considered alcohol as something which is harmful for health and should be refrained from, after reading the articles which clearly indicate that raising the age to 21 has had some negative effects, I believe that the proposal should be taken seriously.
The current law obviously tends to save a number of lives but it has been found out that it has actually encouraged dangerous binge drinking on campus. We cannot expect students to behave in a controlled manner after being exposed to drinking, when they haven't had any exposure in the past 21 yrs. If alcohol is so dangerous, why not have it totally banned? And if it has to be there as a companian while socializing, why not just let it be allowed at an age of 18? Rather as suggested in one of the articles, students should be taught safe drinking, should be given responsibility, and then held accountable for their actions. It will make them comfortable and normal with drinking. They shouldn't be given a chance to consider drinking as something to go crazy about, or something precious hidden from them.
There is Survey showed that the 85% 20-year-old Americans reported that they had used alcohol. I think that means the law did not work on prohibiting the teenagers drinking. Maybe the law made more teenagers attempt taste alcohol. Because of the law, drinking alcohol became a kind of excitative action. And the teenagers are tending to do something at risk. So I think a lot of them first try to use alcohol were for fun or curious. Maybe they wanted to find out the taste of that special liquid or the feeling of break the law.
Alcoholic effects on nervous system are not depending on age. The people who got drunk legally also caused a lot of accidents.
Actually having appropriate volume of wine everyday is good for health. I think the age of drinking alcohol should not be Minimum, yet the volume.
It might be surprising to many of my friends, but I think it is better to lower the drinking age from 21 years to 18 years. I say so because I think it would make the youth more responsible for their acts in a way as they will understand what it is drink. It will bring down the hype created about drinking in their life. They will take drinking alcohol as just another thing in life, so they won’t get all excited about it which can prevent them from drinking too much. This will also lead them to understand their limit of drinking, early. This way they will also not breach any law. As it is commonly seen, one does not value what one has, but values what one could have, the youth are the most likely to fall into this category. I really want to see what changes will this law will bring if it is passed.
Before I read these sources,I thought teenagers should be away from acohol,because
most of them does not have enought self-control after getting drunk. I was superising
that College presidents from about 100 of the best-known U.S. universities, including Duke,
Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from
21 to 18,this was my first time knowing that current laws that raising drinking age to 21 have
nagative effects.No matter 18 or 21, since we in the colleges, the effects of binge drinkging
are not depent on the age when they are all drunk.i support to popularize low acohol drinks on
campus for all students which could reduce risk of getting drunk and i support lowing the drinking
age to 18. Because we have measures such as teaching students how to drink safely instead of raising
the drinking age. i hope the law would change a littele bit about drinking age.
It was quite interesting that college presidents from best-know universities in the U.S . are considering about lowering the drinking age. Maybe they know that drinking age law is not enforced well in the campus. Student who is under 21 can easily get the alcoholic beverage through the friends who are older than 21. Moreover, most parties simply providing the alcoholic beverage to create a pleasant atmosphere.
It might be a good idea to lower the drinking age, reform the nominal law, respect them as the fully grown adult, and ask them to behave as the responsible man. However, college students are not fully prepared about this. Even their physical appearances may have been fully grown, but not the mental. Many of them are still immature and don't know about the weight of true responsibility. Especially in the first couple of years, these young adults just get tasted the freedom of being independent and easily outgoing to enjoy their freedom. They are encountering various problems such as car accident or unwilling pregnancy with high rate.
Lowering the drinking age should not be allowed, because it is just like confining a wolf and sheep in the same fence.
According to the articles, increasing the drinking age from 18 to 21 in the Usa almost twenty years ago wrought positive effects at the beginning, and statistically, the number of alcohol related accidents decreased.
But, according to the same articles, the law does not function as well as it did twenty years ago, where as much as 90% of today’s teenagers do not uphold the law and drink regardless of what the constitution says.
Therefore, professionals such as college presidents and anthropologists object that the record high drinking age of 21 should be employed any longer by the Usa since it is no longer useful.
Statistics show that alcohol related accidents in the Usa are now higher than ever. According to the professionals mentioned in the articles, the high age drinking law is the one responsible for the ever-increasing alcohol related accidents in the colleges, and other alcohol related fatalities in the Usa.
While it does seem clear in the articles that the law fails to control alcohol consumption I really do not see how professionals attribute the law to be responsible for this trend. The articles fail to explain why the law is flawed and the professionals fail to give solid evidence to demonstrate reducing the legal age from 18 to 21 will bring positive consequences rather than worsening the already existing ones.
My conclusion from the articles is that the professionals are libertarians and thus set out to make the world more liberal even if it does not mean making it better. There is zero evidence in the article to attribute the increasing alcohol related accidents to the legal age drinking law instead other factors. The articles depict opinions from college students (ridiculous) and the professionals in the articles fail to give solid facts about their opinions, they just build unrealistic scenarios that fail to persuade the flaw behind the law.
The people responsible in my opinion are the parents who fail to teach their kids to drink responsibly, and the person who drinks, who is the one that ultimately makes the decision.
Lowering the drinking age is definitely the most talked about topic in any university today. In my opinion, its better not to lower the legal drinking age to 18 as the facts have shown the decline in alcohol abuses after increasing the age to 21. Also, lowering the drinking age would not solve the problem, because if the age is lowered, then students in high school would also want to try alcoholic drinks and thus use illegal measures which will in turn, worsen the situation.
It is best, that the administrators start programs at all levels to spread the awareness about alcohol consumption and its effects. Schools and colleges should have mandatory classes that help understand alcohol abuses and diseases.
From my point of view, I agree with lowering legal drinking age insofar, because of its ineffectiveness and my personal experience.
First of all, I am twenty two right now, and my drinking age, starting with beer, can be traced back to the time when I was in junior high school, since China has no legal drinking age at all. However, I and my friends who had the same experience as me never went through alcohol abuse or irrational behavior after drinking. Because of the early expose to alcohol, we have no irregular crush on alcohol, and we drink wisely. On the other hand, American students, who are banned from alcohol for so long, have an irrational crush on alcohol usage, and this could cause serious alcohol abuse. For some extent, lowering legal drinking age is not a ad thing.
Admittedly, most of the arguments overlook a fact that it is the level of compliance with a law, not its enactment that determines its effectiveness. Right now, teenagers still have access to the alcohol, just harder. In addition, lowering legal drinking age could prevent further violence of the law such as faking ID, and underground trade of alcohol.
I think the legal age for drinking in the United States should not be lowered to 18. Honestly, people should be mature enough and not just recklessly drink. Even in the past, during the Vietnam War period, the government tried lowering the age for drinking. The government had thought that if they are ordering 18 year old men to fight for the country and sacrifice their lives then how could they stop them from having an alcohol drink? But as a result the number of deaths due to drinking and driving increased at very high rates. The number of deaths between the age of 16 and 20, were because of car accidents and half of them were drinking and driving. Hence lowering the drinking age has not worked in the past and will definitely not work in the future. Instead laws regarding drinking should be made more stringent.
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