The Young and the Wasted

April 12, 2011 by Jonathan Fitzgerald

Continued from Page 1

This experimentation is socially encouraged. College is the place where young people are supposed to try new things and make decisions for themselves. Tom Wolfe explored this in his mostly painful, but also painfully true, novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons. And my student was right to suggest that as a young adult he must wade through the temptations and make the right decisions. Along the way he will presumably make many wrong ones.

I support experimentation in college. But I live with the hope that my students will choose to experiment more with new ideas than with new mind-altering beverages and substances. At present, however, the statistics don't favor this outcome. As detailed in a recent study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, excessive drinking by college students is "Wasting the Best and the Brightest."

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About Jonathan Fitzgerald

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is the managing editor of Patrolmag.com, and writes on the various manifestations of Christianity in culture. Follow him on Twitter or at his website, www.jonathandfitzgerald.com.

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