Is home schooling best for drinking?

NAPA, Calif. — Grabbing a quick cup of chai tea at a bakery during her lunch hour, Kelly Williams, who at 17 is years away from the legal drinking age, talks about wine: "My brothers and I have a good sense of responsibility when it comes to drinking," says the St. Helena High School senior, who comes from a family of well-known local winemakers. "We've grown up with the sense that it's a part of life. It isn't a forbidden fruit. That's just the way my parents have raised me."

Likewise, Kelly's 17-year-old stepbrother, Jake Engelskirger, a senior at Napa High, enjoys sipping wine at home occasionally. He does not, like many of his friends, attend parties where minors drink to get drunk. "There's a huge difference there," he says, sitting on a school bench at day's end. "I've really lucked out because my parents have done a fantastic job of teaching me about respect for alcohol and wine."

Kelly and Jake, who believe the best place to learn about drinking is at home, may unwittingly be endorsing a traditional yet controversial kind of alcohol education. The idea that parents might -- or should -- take a hand in teaching their children how to drink responsibly before the kids are unleashed on the world after high school is one that is surprisingly little discussed in alcohol education circles.

Every year, just in time for New Year's Eve, the University of Michigan releases a major survey about teens and illicit drug use (including alcohol). This year's results found that while slightly fewer teenagers are drinking, the numbers remain consistently high. Some experts say that whatever else, the current approaches to alcohol education, which emphasize abstinence until the age of 21, are not working.

There are shelves of research and debate on certain aspects of underage drinking. Public service campaigns have focused on eliminating drunken driving, not serving alcohol to underage drinkers and, after some highly publicized arrests and accidents, asking parents not to provide havens for underage drinking parties. Increasingly, local governments are putting teeth in that request, passing laws that specifically punish parents who allow such parties. Movements to lower the drinking age, which is uniformly 21 in the United States, crop up now and then. But little effort has been devoted to studying whether the home may be a good place to learn how to be responsible about alcohol, which some researchers think is a topic ripe for exploration.