This was oringinally going to be a comment on Victoria's blog but I felt as though it was too long to put there, so props to Victoria for giving me the idea!
In America politicians are considering lowering the drinking age to I believe about 18. It is a controversial issue because parents are worried that their kids will look at this oppurtunity to get alcohol and run wild. But it is difficult to judge... In other countries such as France, the drinking age is significantly lower then ours and the kids seem to be alot less interested in alchohol. Now, people could just say thats not true but this summer I went to France and I was able to see how two girls lived there.
One girl was a year younger then I was and I had just met her, and the other was my age and I have known her for a very long time. When I stayed with the younger girl, we went to dinner and then went to go hang out with her friends. When we sat down immediatly a couple kids ordered beers. It was a weird experience for me, in America as you all know, that's illegal! After dinner we went to go hang out and kids brought beer but it was not even a big deal to them, they just passed a few out and went on just doing what they were doing. Now people can say that that experience was different then the rest of the world, and that was one group of kids. But later that week I stayed with the girl who was my age. We were hanging out with her friends and thankfully I could speak in English! I asked her how France was different from America and how the cultures differed. She started talking about how alcohol was less in demand from french teens because it was not a big deal. She thought that the lowered age made a Huge difference in the amount of teens getting completly wasted and blacking out. She of course followed up by saying that of course there were still the kids who went that far, but it was far less common.
Now, just from those two experiences I got the vibe that because the drinking age is lowered, the kids do not care about alcohol as much. I feel as though if the politicians followed France in that movement that maybe there would be less American teens going out there and going crazy. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right, but I do feel as though since nothing else is working to make American teens slow down, we should give this a try.
About Me
- Maddie M
- I love being with friends, making new ones and questioning things. My family and my friends mean the world to me and I love them!
2 comments:
I think that this is an excellent post! I have to say that I think that the drinking age should be lowered but it shouldn't be. In Europe, it is common to drink at ages as young as like 8 and it seems that by this being there, later in life when it is legal for the kids to drink they aren't as interested in drinking to get wasted and what not. But I don't really know what the best idea would be for the drinking age! Its so hard to tell! But I agree with you!
I really enjoyed your post. year ago, I too was able to talk with a boy from Europe about drinking. The more we talked, the more I realized that it is hard to compare drinking over seas to drinking in the US. He explained that in Europe, drinking is more of a family affair. Kids will at young ages with their family members. In the US, drinking is hardly a family affair. Drinking most often occurs on the weekend in houses where the parents are not home. And US teenagers are not drinking in moderation. I feel that drinking in the US is much more about going out and getting drunk and less about the classier and more laid back European way. As far as lowering the drinking age goes, I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make. I would assume that if they lowered it, the age would be 18. So college kids would now be able to drink. I'm not sure how much of an impact this would make because it is extremely easy for college kids to get alchohol anyways. I think the biggest probolem is the high schoolers. One thing that attracts so many hs kids to alchol, is the risk of the situation. Getting away with drinking without you parents finding out. In the end, if the drinking age is going to be lowered , they might as well make it 15.
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