Drink at 16, Drive at 18

Scott Hardie | June 3, 2007
A high school teacher of mine once got us all nervous when he cited statistics showing how much safer we would all be if the US adopted the age limits of most European countries, which is to let you drink at 16 and drive at 18. In essence, he argued that we teach you how to drive a dangerous moving vehicle and then we let you figure out how to drink with those keys in your hand, rather than letting you learn how to drink responsibly and then giving you the keys when you're mature enough to not to use them. We were worried: We knew the kids who wanted to drink could find ways, but take away our long-awaited drivers licenses? They were a rite of passage and an essential part of our freedom! Of course, being teenagers, everything was a Big Deal.

Today's Newsweek reminds me of that with a coincidental pair of stories: an interview with a sociologist who makes a brief but compelling argument in favor of lowering the drinking age from the ridiculous 21 (highest legal age in the world) and educating teens about drinking responsibly (link), and an editorial from the characteristically statistic-obsessed Anna Quindlen on the high death rate of young teenage drivers (link).

To me, the driving issue is a little less critical only because parents aware of the situation can deny their kids a license until they're 18, not that it will make home a happy place for those two years. But there's little to be done about the alcohol laws except change them; they're ineffective at stopping teens from drinking and in fact they make it more dangerous by making teens drink in largely uncontrolled, unsafe environments such as off-campus parties. Parents can let their kids drink at home as young as 16, but what about when the kids go off to college? We create an environment where you learn to drink all the wrong ways and spend years at-risk, so that ironically you're responsible by the time you turn 21 and legal. Isn't there a better way?

Jackie Mason | June 3, 2007
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Anna Gregoline | June 4, 2007
I think you're on to something here...a family friend's kid died when he went away to college - binge-drank with his frat buddies, passed out on the couch and was dead by morning. I know he was the type of kid who didn't drink in high school.

"Educating kids about alcohol" to me does no good - alcohol is a learning experience all it's own when you try it.

Scott Hardie | June 4, 2007
Jackie, I'm with you about "Amy." Ridiculous anecdotal evidence. (Speaking of Amys, where's ours? I miss her.)

Anna, I agree that learning how to drink responsibly is something you mostly just have to learn by doing, but I'd rather kids learn it and then get behind the wheel than the other way around.

Kris Weberg | June 4, 2007
How much fo the teen driving issue is also the result of the way America's cities were built around the car, and how many smaller communities simply lack any adequate transportation alternative to a personal automobile?

Anna Gregoline | June 4, 2007
Anna, I agree that learning how to drink responsibly is something you mostly just have to learn by doing, but I'd rather kids learn it and then get behind the wheel than the other way around.

I know, I'm agreeing with you. =)

Jackie Mason | June 4, 2007
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Denise Sawicki | June 4, 2007
I don't think all the moralizing about drinking that goes on in American grade schools really does any good. If a kid is prone to rebel against authority it will probably make them *more* likely to drink to excess. If they (like I was) are naturally respectful/fearful of authority, it will just further convince them of the evils of something they weren't going to do anyway, therefore turning the person into more of a repressed weirdo. For someone who grew up in an atheist home, I sure had some ridiculous beliefs in my early years, such as that anyone who drinks at all is a bad person. Anyway I agree that having an earlier drinking age would probably be good, as well as lessening the emphasis on how bad drinking is! I remember when I was 9 years old my parents took me to visit relatives in Switzerland and the girl who was a few years younger than me had a little taste of wine with dinner. (Probably just a sip though I don't remember!) At the time I thought it was the most scandalous thing I ever heard of, but in retrospect I'm convinced it is a good idea to stop making alcohol into such a big forbidden thing for young people.

No offense of course to those who choose not to drink for more sensible and well-considered reasons :)

Scott Hardie | June 5, 2007
Kris and Jackie, I hear you, but I think the trend is going to continue for many years to come. I suspect it has more to do with convenience than laziness. When I need to pay the rent to the front office of the apartment complex (somehow in this day and age they don't let you pay online), I sometimes walk it over, but I wind up sweaty and flustered from the Florida heat. Evenings are better, but if I can drop it off from my car on the way to work, why not?

Denise, I think we're in agreement. I also want kids not to think of alcohol as this big forbidden thing, because that drives some to it. To me, alcohol education for kids means getting them familiar and knowledgeable with alcohol, much like drivers' ed gets kids familiar with driving before they enter the adult driving world. It may mean a one-day drinking-in-class event for those with permissive parents. The problem is, people of one stripe see such a concept as helping their kid avoid the dangers of binge drinking later in college, while people of another stripe see that as leading their kid towards binge drinking. What difference does scientific research make in the face of ingrained cultural tradition?

Tony Peters | June 6, 2007
Ok I'm old....well old enough to have drunk legally at age 18 while still in highschool (the whole year actually) and we didn't really have any problems with drinking....my class however was the last to drink legally, 4 years later there were a number of problems, no one died but a number of accidents involving highschool kids and alcohol. Having been around the world and seen the way other countries treat drinking I think we have it wrong here....
As for driving again other places do it better than we do but then just about every other civilized country in the world has a better public transportation system than we do, so there are choices elsewhere that we don't have here....

Jackie Mason | June 6, 2007
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Amy Austin | June 6, 2007
I'm in total agreement that, on this among many other things, this country is hung up on the whole concept of "temptation" and failing to realize exactly why it exists here to the degree it does!

Thanks, Scott... it's nice to be missed -- and speaking of missing people, I'm sorry I missed your birthday. I hope you had a good day down there where you are... still in this galaxy, yet far, far away... ;-) I can't see far enough beyond my own troubles right now to pay better attention to such matters, but hopefully I can make it up to my friends -- all of whom I wish were closer -- eventually.

Scott Hardie | June 6, 2007
You have nothing for which to make up. Thank you for the kindness. :-) And may your own troubles cease soon enough.