Are We Doing Enough?

Coming of Age Chapter 8 discusses the health and wellness issues that middle school students face. As I was reading it the number one question that came to mind was, are we doing enough? Someone wrote in their blog earlier this week that schools are spending more time teaching more social etiquette than we use to and some parents are shifting the responsibility of teaching these morals to their children onto the school system. Either way, students need to learn them. The section that covers alcohol consumption and abuse linked in my head to the section on page 139 about leading causes of death among adolescents. The number one cause is accidents. I fully realize that it is not the school’s job (and definitely shouldn’t even be on the radar for middle school) to teach about alcohol safety, but again kids need to learn it somewhere. Too many young people get behind the wheel after drinking and “think” that they are ok, or go swimming, or go to bed while they’re still puking and the night ends horribly. The argument about “abstinence only” is the same; it is a moral issue that schools battle with. I like many other teachers just want the best for my students, and I think that we could lower the number of “accidents” that students have with a little education that is realistic to their lives.