My aunt, the proud parent of a first-grade girl, recently called me to tell me something that happened at her public school.
Olivia came home with her requisite 15 minutes of homework, which my aunt dutifully helps her with. My aunt looked through it before doing it with her, and noticed one strange page.
The paper had pictures of different beverages on it, and the assignment was “Circle the drinks that have alcohol in them.” There was a foaming beer mug, a bubbling bottle of champagne, and a mixed drink with a parasol. Other drinks included a coke, a carton of milk, and the like.
Apparently, Olivia got this assignment from her “Guidance” class. When my aunt asked her what she learned about alcohol, Olivia said “When you’re 21, you have to decide whether or not you’re going to drink it.”
My aunt has no idea if this is a good thing, and frankly I’m not sure either. I figured that “Guidance” in first grade means teaching them that sharing is good, hitting is bad, and they should brush their teeth after every meal and floss twice a day. Is the world in such bad shape that six-year-old kids have to be learning about alcohol? Would you be upset if your first-grader came home with that assignment? Have your kids ever come home with an assignment that you had qualms about? If so, what did you do?
Drain Bead, I remember my children being taught the basics of getting along with others, sharing and doing things as a team in first grade. I checked with my daughter who is in her first year of teaching elementary students. The same basics are still being taught. My daughter pointed out that some teachers have a particular agenda and pass the agenda on to their students, my daughter disagrees with this practice. She believes the job of a teacher is to teach the children and not to attempt to sway their opinions to match the teachers beliefs.
This makes you wonder what the school will send home in second grade, condom donning diagrams?
Well. my.
Frankly, I ** did ** talk to my son about alcohol when he was that young. His father is a recovering alcoholic and my mom died of acute alcoholism. So, I’ve always thought it was in his best interest to have some idea.
Plus, frankly, most kids ** do ** have some idea anyhow. Think about it. “no, you can’t drink this, it’s Mommy’s drink”. I remember knowing at an early age which of "mom’s " drinks you could sip from (clue #1 do NOT drink out of “mommy’s water glass” - my brother did - straight vodka.)
BUT. Do I want the school to be presenting this? Don’t think so.
Well, my son is in the second grade. He’s not come home yet with any assignment such as that.
But I try to tell him things he might wonder about, like when we passed a bar (I ran in to get a free weekly paper), I told him he couldn’t go in.
I also told him alcohol is a drink that is bad for you (I didn’t lie). Nowadays, its not too early to warn them; my friends were drinking and taking drugs in the 6th grade.
When my son was in first grade, he brought home a whole bunch of literature about drugs. Alcohol was the LEAST of it! The brochure about methamphetamine was so explicit that you could almost use the information contained therein to make your OWN crank. Yes, kids need to know that drugs and alcohol are bad for them. But I feel that the PARENTS should supply the bulk of the information, and that a school can go OVERBOARD in the “war against drugs”.
I have talked with my son several times about drinking. His dad has been sober for fifteen years. Most of my siblings are also recovering alcoholics. He needs to know about the addictive nature of alcohol, so he can make a wise choice when he runs across it for the first time. I told him about my experiences with drinking (I hold my liquor like a seive), and WHY they resulted in my choosing to avoid alcohol altogether. But I felt that the school’s anti-drug education program was too much, too soon.
Since a complaint to our superintendent would have fallen on deaf ears, I had a talk with Justin about lots of drugs he didn’t need to know about yet. <sigh>
I’ve been drinking since I was six, I don’t see a problem…
No, I’m not trolling, I really have. But it was things like a half inch of fizzy wine or watered down wine at Christmas or parties before getting sent to bed. My mom figured that if it was just treated normally and sensibly, it wouldn’t become a big thing and I wouldn’t do anything stupid with it when I was older.
Except for the one time when I nagged my mom - my grandad had one a bottle of whisky at the school fair. Mom what’s whisky? It’s a drink. Can I have some? No. She put it away thinking that I would forget about it. Three days later they gave me about two inches neat thinking that I’d hate the taste. I gulped it down in one & said “Can I have some more?” “NO!” Poor mom!
In the UK it is legal to give alcohol to kids from 5 years or over (less than that requires medical supervison, hence some common medicines needing to be on prescription if they are for kids).
Oh, BTW, I didn’t do anything stupid, but one of the kids at my school was hospitalised was for quite some time with acute alcohol poisoning - the week we left school, there were leaving parties (several, plus a couple of eighteenths). He went to all of them & got throwing up drunk at each - he’d never been allowed to drink before.
That said, if all the kid had remembered from the lesson is that alcohol exists & one day you’ll have to decide whether to drink it, with no info on why they should or shouldn’t, then that is definitely a bad lesson.
Drain, my son is in 5th grade and thankfully, hasn’t been exposed to this kind of nonsense. If he had been, I’d be home schooling him now.
Frankly, it all reminds me of that really weird “Reefer Madness” movie that used to be on late at night. Jeez, it just amazes me what some people consider “teaching”.
I had to read it.
I couldn’t believe it.
If there were any more trees standing around here, all fallen from me banging my head on in frustration with the PC confusion in our schools, I’d go out and bang my head against one.
What’s next? First grade select the contraceptive? Circle the Glock?
I dimly remember first grade. It was the wonderful scent of big colorful crayons, tasty white paste, pictures to color, letters to learn, Dick and Jane following Spot, nap time, snack time, milk time, lunch time, play time, construction paper, and finger paints. Johnny wet his pants and Suzy ate half of my yellow crayon and said it didn’t taste like lemon. Door knobs at eye level and Mr. Janitor, a smiling older man about 50 feet tall who kept the school sparkling clean and bugs out of the bathrooms.
We were more interested in chocolate milk and cool aide, soda pop, and juice than Bush Beer. I don’t think we even knew what booze was, though we knew that coffee tasted like crap and was for grownups only.
I drank my first beer when I was five years old. I found it sitting on the kitchen table, went outside on the front porch and basked in the sun while I enjoyed a cool one. I passed out promptly afterwards.
My mother freaked out when she found me and felt guilty for leaving beer where I could get my hands on it. My education about alcohol came at a very early age. It didn’t taint my childhood to know that beer wasn’t good for you.
Our kids know about alcohol even though we normally don’t keep any in the house. They ask questions and we answer them. It’s really quite simple.
6 year olds are at an age where they start to ponder these things so perhaps it is good that the school has recognized that there are things they should know from an early age and that some parents aren’t comfortable providing the answers.
My upbringing was pretty similar to Fierra’s, minus the whiskey (that stuff still makes me heave). My father assumed that when I went off on my own I would drink, and that it would be better if I learned how to do so responsibly and sociably. Then there’s also the fact that my family is French, so wine at the dinner table was pretty common.
I distinctly remember high school kids coming to my 6th-grade class to put on skits about the dangers of alcohol. The heavy propaganda didn’t really start until junior high (1985).
Teaching first graders why alcohol is bad: Good idea, if gone about the right way. Plenty of parents are drinkers (at least occasional) and the little first grader is bound to come across some sometime. Knowing enough not to down a can of beer like you’d down a can of Coke is probably enough at that age, teaching them about cirrhosis of the liver and delirium tremens is overkill and would just scare them without helping them.
Teaching first graders why crack is bad: I don’t see the need, but I don’t see how it could harm them if done correctly. First graders who might happen upon crack (and, by extension, other illegal drugs, hard or not) have problems a school cannot handle. And I doubt first graders patronize drug dealers in any numbers. At the first grade level, a brief section of ‘these are bad, avoid them’ should be enough. They’ll learn all the specifics at higher grades.
Some parents drink. Some parents are not very responsible. Some kids could drink their parents’ alcohol. I think it’s OK for schools to educate the kids as to which types of drinks are alcoholic, and that they should not drink them until they are grown up.
When I was little, my parents had a wedding at our house for a cousin. There were half-empty drinks all over the place, and we kids got into them. We actually knew we shouldn’t be doing this, but kids will be kids. Maybe if someone had told us about alcohol poisoning, it might have stopped us. Maybe… as it was, nobody died, but there were a few 6-year olds who were slightly drunk! (And parents as well, obviously.)
My parents were/are alcoholics, and many other family members are also. I am also a recovering alkie, as well as drug user. (Clean for 11 years now!) Anyway, I talked to my son from the time he was 4 or 5 about the dangers of drug use and alcohol. He comes from a long line of substance abusers, and I believe is at greater risk because of genetic factors. He needs all the info he can get, and I don’t mind added help from schools.
Something needs to be done, and education can’t hurt. Just my nickel’s worth.
It does seem an odd thing to teach a six year old. Third grade, sure, but first? It just seems a little soon. Then again, the kids in my school all know what beer is, and many of them have piles of the stuff at home. Educating them about safety issues related to alcohol may be a good thing.
The actual assignment doesn’t sound particularly useful, however. Just going by picture isn’t exactly the best way to identify an alcoholic beverage.