<p>Heh, I never actually finished Driver's Ed.</p>
<p>I took an Online Course which didn't check to see if you read the whole thing before you took the test to get the little certificate which says you passed the course.</p>
<p>And I was like "Oh, I'll take the test to see what I need to study" and I passed. XD So I never had to finish.</p>
<p>I love how you guys casually talk about breaking the law.</p>
<p>/sarcasm</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
I love how you guys casually talk about breaking the law.</p>
<p>/sarcasm
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>You must not be a driver then..</p>
<p>^ exactly.
Can't be a driver then.</p>
<p>I used to be all "how dare you go 5 miles over the speed limit!"
You'll never hear that out of me again.</p>
<p>haha, me too.</p>
<p>i dont do anything ridiculous like drink and drive and if i have my friends in the car i dont let them distract me. i think teenagers in our society are ridiculously restricted. you can go and die in iraq before you can get your full license or drink, how does that make sense. uncle sam thinks that you are responsible enough to fight for the country but not responsible enough to drive a car or have a beer.</p>
<p>Yeah, we're ridiculously restricted.</p>
<p>Those kids in other countries who have to pay to go to elementary school, man they have it good.</p>
<p>i just think that teenagers are as capable as adults and should be treated as such. but im all for free public education, i dont know why you would assume im not.</p>
<p>That wasn't the point at all.</p>
<p>I'm saying that it kind of annoys me how people complain so much about how bad we have it as teenagers when we actually have it incredibly easy.</p>
<p>i didnt necessarily say we have it bad. i just think its strange how in other societies, after puberty, people are simply incorporated into the adult world and there is no such thing as adolescence or teen angst or anything like that, and here, teenagers and young adults are basically infantalized to an extraordinary extent. i think i read a survey that said most americans believe that you arent a real adult until age 28 or something. i just think thats an interesting contrast to other countries in the world. thats all im saying. its not necessarily worse. for instance, i think the child labor laws we have are definitely a plus. but other restrictions i think are unecessary.</p>
<p>
[quote]
you can go and die in iraq before you can get your full license or drink, how does that make sense.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>In what state, praytell, can you not get a full license at age 18?</p>
<p>But I'm all for lowering the drinking age (not so I can be all gung-ho, but because Europe shows that we've put booze on a golden pedestal by making the drinking age 21).</p>
<p>I don't.</p>
<p>I think if we were allowed to drink at 18 we would abuse it by drinking and driving.</p>
<p>Think about it-we drive other people at 16 when we're not supposed to. If they add alcohol to that mix...it would NOT be a pretty picture.</p>
<p>The drinking age is 21 for a reason.</p>
<p>johnson, i am pretty sure that you can go to iraq at age 17. i think the ages are 17-32 or something, but i could be wrong. and i agree about the pedestal thing. it just romantizes drinking and makes people go insane.</p>
<p>^ You can go to Iraq at 17??? Say what?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Think about it-we drive other people at 16 when we're not supposed to.
[/quote]
Where I live driving others at 16 is completely legal.</p>
<p>And the drinking age being 21 only results in some teenagers thinking that alcohol is so incredibly amazing that they must consume more than they can handle.
If people were to learn their limits before they got their license, we would have less problems.</p>
<p>As a side note, in my state (and many others), it's legal to drink under 21. The catch? You either have to be with a spouse or with a guardian. (You cannot buy it though).</p>
<p>You CAN, but the Military really looks down on it. They don't like to take 17-year-olds to war. In fact I think you have to have special permission from your parents, and I KNOW you have to at least have your GED.</p>
<p>I will, however, admit that I'm biased against alcohol because there's a lot of alcoholism in my family. I've seen alcohol ruin too many lives.</p>
<p>yeah, you definitely need parental permission.</p>
<p>There's a lot of alcoholism in my family as well...</p>
<p>That 17 thing is insane though. Actually, I knew this. But I guess I was thrown off by the license thing since license is 16 here. And I don't believe you need parental permission in my state (I live in one crazy state...). 17 you become an adult in pretty much all respects, and can move out of your house/ drop out of school sans parental permission. That GED thing is probably true I guess.</p>
<p>i can understand that, HisGraceFillsMe, my dad was an alcoholic for his entire life and he recently died, not as a direct result of the drinking but it certainly didnt help. he went to the vietnam war and he had several Forrest Gump-like incidents, where he saw all his best friends die. he began drinking heavily to dull the pain and he soon lost control over it.</p>
<p>that still doesnt change how i feel about the drinking laws though. i just feel that the older drinking age romantizes drinking too much and makes it too tempting, sort of like a "forbidden fruit"-type thing. i feel that it would be better to lower it to 18.</p>
<p>I don't think it does.</p>
<p>Especially living in California, AKA one of the "party" states...none of my friends (or at least the vast majority) even tried alcohol before it was legal. None of us have any interest in it. But maybe it's different there? I dunno.</p>
<p>HGFM- if you're considering California a "party state," you really need to come down here. I think I know 2 people in my class who have never tried alcohol, and they're completely straight edge (vegetarian to the max as well).</p>