next »

[prof_smartypants]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of the reasons the drinking age got raised to 21 was to make it more difficult for high school students to obtain alcohol. Not too many 15 year olds are friends with people over 21, but there's a whole bunch of high school seniors who are 18, and could readily buy for younger kids.

It's possible I'm basing this analysis on Dazed and Confused.

Yes, I think you are on target, what I called the younger/older brother/sister effect (above).  HS kids working part time in retail and fast food also provided opportunities to get a chummy with 18s and 19s, who could buy for them. 

PS: Dazed and Confused was not too far off the mark, especially the big party for underage drinkers in a remote setting.

Well I grew up when the drinking age was 21, and we still had keggers in the woods.

[sugaree]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of the reasons the drinking age got raised to 21 was to make it more difficult for high school students to obtain alcohol. Not too many 15 year olds are friends with people over 21, but there's a whole bunch of high school seniors who are 18, and could readily buy for younger kids.

It's possible I'm basing this analysis on Dazed and Confused.

Yes, I think you are on target, what I called the younger/older brother/sister effect (above).  HS kids working part time in retail and fast food also provided opportunities to get a chummy with 18s and 19s, who could buy for them. 

PS: Dazed and Confused was not too far off the mark, especially the big party for underage drinkers in a remote setting.

Well I grew up when the drinking age was 21, and we still had keggers in the woods.

That's 'cause they're fun!

[prytania3]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of the reasons the drinking age got raised to 21 was to make it more difficult for high school students to obtain alcohol. Not too many 15 year olds are friends with people over 21, but there's a whole bunch of high school seniors who are 18, and could readily buy for younger kids.

It's possible I'm basing this analysis on Dazed and Confused.

Yes, I think you are on target, what I called the younger/older brother/sister effect (above).  HS kids working part time in retail and fast food also provided opportunities to get a chummy with 18s and 19s, who could buy for them. 

PS: Dazed and Confused was not too far off the mark, especially the big party for underage drinkers in a remote setting.

Broke alcholics hang around many liquor stores. Teens give them a couple of bucks for fortified wine and their own order, the broke alcoholic goes into the liquor store and comes back with the goods.

You don't need to *know* anyone to buy alcohol if you are underaged.

Also, everyone looks to Europe for civilized drinking--Europe has a very, very high rate of alcoholism--and that includes France--or should I say, especially France.

[prof_smartypants]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of the reasons the drinking age got raised to 21 was to make it more difficult for high school students to obtain alcohol. Not too many 15 year olds are friends with people over 21, but there's a whole bunch of high school seniors who are 18, and could readily buy for younger kids.

It's possible I'm basing this analysis on Dazed and Confused.

Yes, I think you are on target, what I called the younger/older brother/sister effect (above).  HS kids working part time in retail and fast food also provided opportunities to get a chummy with 18s and 19s, who could buy for them. 

PS: Dazed and Confused was not too far off the mark, especially the big party for underage drinkers in a remote setting.

Broke alcholics hang around many liquor stores. Teens give them a couple of bucks for fortified wine and their own order, the broke alcoholic goes into the liquor store and comes back with the goods.

You don't need to *know* anyone to buy alcohol if you are underaged.

Also, everyone looks to Europe for civilized drinking--Europe has a very, very high rate of alcoholism--and that includes France--or should I say, especially France.

Meh. This got harder by the time I was in high school. Cops posed as drunks. We got to the point where so many people we knew got busted that we didn't try that trick any longer. We stuck with older brothers and the like.

[hmaria1609]

Where I attended for library school, one thing that the RAs told the undergrads the 1st week of the new school year: those who were education majors caught drinking prior to age 21 would have on it on record and would be barred from teaching in the state.
So much for it being a "dry" campus too!

[prytania3]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of the reasons the drinking age got raised to 21 was to make it more difficult for high school students to obtain alcohol. Not too many 15 year olds are friends with people over 21, but there's a whole bunch of high school seniors who are 18, and could readily buy for younger kids.

It's possible I'm basing this analysis on Dazed and Confused.

Yes, I think you are on target, what I called the younger/older brother/sister effect (above).  HS kids working part time in retail and fast food also provided opportunities to get a chummy with 18s and 19s, who could buy for them. 

PS: Dazed and Confused was not too far off the mark, especially the big party for underage drinkers in a remote setting.

Broke alcholics hang around many liquor stores. Teens give them a couple of bucks for fortified wine and their own order, the broke alcoholic goes into the liquor store and comes back with the goods.

You don't need to *know* anyone to buy alcohol if you are underaged.

Also, everyone looks to Europe for civilized drinking--Europe has a very, very high rate of alcoholism--and that includes France--or should I say, especially France.

Meh. This got harder by the time I was in high school. Cops posed as drunks. We got to the point where so many people we knew got busted that we didn't try that trick any longer. We stuck with older brothers and the like.

It still works in the Nutmeg State.

[prof_smartypants]

Hell, I went to college in the Nutmeg state. If you could get to the liquor store before 8, they'd sell to anyone!

[prytania3]

Hell, I went to college in the Nutmeg state. If you could get to the liquor store before 8, they'd sell to anyone!

It's 9 now. We got enlightenment.

[battleunit]

Meh. This got harder by the time I was in high school. Cops posed as drunks. We got to the point where so many people we knew got busted that we didn't try that trick any longer. We stuck with older brothers and the like.

hahahahahahaha

I used to do this very thing.  You take their money, go into the store, buy the booze, come out, ask them if they were sure that they wanted the booze because they might end up like you.  Offer to return the booze to the store so they could get their money back.  Reluctantly hand them the booze.  Then pull your badge out from your sock and tell the kid the truth.

The funniest thing is we would only hit one or two stores every month, and the kids would spread rumors that we were hiding behind every trash can and dumpster in the city.  And we did not do it to stop the kids from buying booze, but to keep them away from the street drug users who would seriously victimize them in their quest for money to maintain their habit.

[bander40]

People are missing the point. One of the primary functions of the residential four-year undergraduate college experience is to prolong adolescence. The model is marketed as "come here, have fun, no responsibilities, no worries."

I bet the frequency and severity of drunkenness is much lower among community college students, even when correlated for age.

 

You might think this would be the case, because they're not having the traditional keggers and vomiting frat parties. However, I teach at a cc, and I've noticed students seem to have had much harder and darker experiences with alcohol, at least compared with the experiences of "traditional" college students. Our students are older, of course (average age 26), but by the time we get them, many of them have either served time for DUIs, worked as bartenders, or had drunken, abusive parents. They may have even sworn off alcohol as a result. CC students also tend to have less access to resources like counseling and lawyers, so the long-term effects of alcohol may linger and be more destructive. 

Then there was the time I had to call a former student of mine, a middle-aged man, to suggest that he refrain from coming to a colleague's class while intoxicated. (I'm not sure if this was the right approach, but the colleague was seriously unnerved, so I offered to approach him in hopes of avoiding a more official response. He was quite embarrassed.)

[dr_alcott]

People are missing the point. One of the primary functions of the residential four-year undergraduate college experience is to prolong adolescence. The model is marketed as "come here, have fun, no responsibilities, no worries."

I bet the frequency and severity of drunkenness is much lower among community college students, even when correlated for age.

 

You might think this would be the case, because they're not having the traditional keggers and vomiting frat parties. However, I teach at a cc, and I've noticed students seem to have had much harder and darker experiences with alcohol, at least compared with the experiences of "traditional" college students. Our students are older, of course (average age 26), but by the time we get them, many of them have either served time for DUIs, worked as bartenders, or had drunken, abusive parents. They may have even sworn off alcohol as a result. CC students also tend to have less access to resources like counseling and lawyers, so the long-term effects of alcohol may linger and be more destructive. 

Then there was the time I had to call a former student of mine, a middle-aged man, to suggest that he refrain from coming to a colleague's class while intoxicated. (I'm not sure if this was the right approach, but the colleague was seriously unnerved, so I offered to approach him in hopes of avoiding a more official response. He was quite embarrassed.)

In the last few months, at a CC, my husband has had to tell one student not come come to class drunk and another not to come to class high. But I expect our colleagues at SLACs and unis have had similar experiences.

[glowdart]

In the last few months, at a CC, my husband has had to tell one student not come come to class drunk and another not to come to class high. But I expect our colleagues at SLACs and unis have had similar experiences.

My pupils' pupils tell me quite a bit. 

[battleunit]

In the last few months, at a CC, my husband has had to tell one student not come come to class drunk and another not to come to class high. But I expect our colleagues at SLACs and unis have had similar experiences.

My pupils' pupils tell me quite a bit. 

I have on numerous occasions held students who were intoxicated for legal authorities (or if they allow me, to take them home after class personally.  The police only need be involved if they seem like they will be leaving my class and hopping into a car).

However, the academy is terrible about drunkenness in its own ranks.  I had to sit next to a staffer in a meeting for an hour as she breathed booze on me and make loud and pointless interjections into the meeting.  When I asked my colleagues about it, I was told "we do not mention her drinking."