AHS Views

Statistics show that kids whose parents really educate them on the dangers of alcohol are 50 percent less likely to drink. A new program in two Seattle high schools is showing that education in schools can have the same effect – their alcohol education program reduced the number of kids who drink by 50 percent. This is important for several reasons – it stops kids, and families, from suffering the consequences of alcohol abuse, and it also greatly reduces the chances that kids will turn into adult alcoholics who need alcohol rehab.

What do we mean by ‘education’? It’s not just ordering kids not to drink or take drugs, and it’s not broad generalities about how they’re bad for you. It’s giving them information about what alcohol is, what is does to the body, how it effects the mind, how it makes a person even less able to control their environment and their thoughts, and less able to address whatever problems they have that are making them want to drink.

It also means giving them statistics on the consequences – driving while under the influence, the increase in other types of accidents and injuries, information on how it effects kids in school regarding their grades, their ability to show up for classes where they can get the education they need to have a good future, and so on.

In other words, they need the full picture. Just like adults, reasonable kids use information to make their decisions. Not all kids will do that, and not all adults will do that, but it decreases the chances of them drinking or taking drugs by 50 percent – so we know that at least ½ of them ‘get it.’

The program in the Seattle schools got everyone involved – the kids, the parents, the teachers, and the police.

If you educate your kids, and get your kids’ schools to initiate a similar education program to back you up, it will really help. Your kids will be safer, and you’ll have one less thing to worry about.

Sometimes education isn’t enough. If someone in your family won’t stop drinking, get them into an alcohol addiction help program so they won’t ruin their lives, or yours.