The Day for Stupid Articles on MSN.com

Here are 2 more:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23578747 - Hazing is Prevalent in Colleges
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23579662 - 17% of 6th Graders have Tried Alcohol

Article 1: According to the researchers, we'll refer to them as Butch and Butcher (their picture was on the U. of Maine homepage, and I really did go look), hazing is prevalent on college campuses. Of course hazing, according to Butch and Butcher, hazing is anything that includes: atendance at a skit or roast where team members are humiliated; wearing clothing that is embarrassing; being yelled, screamed, or cursed at; acting as a personal servant; enduring harsh weather; drinking large amounts of a non-alcoholic beverage; drinking a large amount of alcohol to the point of passing out or getting sick; and watching live sex acts. Finally, their 'huge' surprising conclusion was that 9 of 10 people that reported experiencing one or more of these activities said they didn't feel like it was hazing. Butch and Butcher like to think that these results show that hazing is widespread and a serious concern that all universities should be concerned with. Moreover, they think that stricter laws and rules be implemented to combat this horrible act. Perhaps, if they would have put away their femi-nazi agendas and stopped to consider their results for a moment, they would realize that 9 out of 10 people didn't consider these activities to be hazing because they were, dare I say, having fun!! Obviously, some hazing does go too far, but singing and chanting... wearing embarrassing clothing... playing drinking games... It's college, and just because you spent your 4 years trying to come to grips with the fact that you like eating Snizz and getting fisted by a chick that looks like a dude, does not mean that the rest of the world is not allowed to experience anything 'fun' in college. Furthermore, people join a fraternity, sorority, sports team, club, etc. so they feel like a part of something. It is a proven psychological fact that things mean more when people have to work for them. When people go out to join these groups, most go in assuming that they will have to work in some way to get accepted. Those that don't are just naive. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Yes, hazing in which people die is something we should be concerned about but to define hazing to include singing, wearing clothes, having to associate with specific people as hazing is insane. The last time I checked no one died from singing or chanting in public, no one died from wearing embarrassing clothes, and no one died from hanging out with specific people. Articles like this really make me wonder just how many lines of research are started to find an answer to why bad things happen to certain people. Like the article I wrote about in which a researched found that teenage girls that hangout with boys are more likely to drink. Could this research simply exist because Butch and Butcher were embarrassed or made to feel bad in college and now they have some vendetta against anyone else feeling this way. Just because you had a poor experience in college doesn't mean you should ruin it for everyone else!! It's like if I were in a car accident and now I want to ban everyone from driving. People die in car accidents all the time, in fact the likelihood of dying in a car accident is much higher than dying from a hazing incident, does this mean we should work to ban driving? Maybe I should make that a dissertation topic.

Article 2: Read the article, a study that claims 17% of 6th graders have tried alcohol is trying to convince people that alcohol education should take place in elementary school. There are 3 issues I have with this article:

1. The sample is 4000 6th graders in Chicago, IL. I understand that most research studies are based on samples of college freshman and these are generalized to a larger population, however, 6th grade in 1 city is a little hard to generalize to all middle schoolers. My point is that college freshman from around the world is a much more homogenous group than 6th graders from around the world. Especially when the sample is from middle schools in a very large urban area. What about middle schoolers in rural areas? The south? All I'm saying is, it is a stretch to survey 4000 6th graders in 1 of the largest cities in the world and try to generalize it to all middle schoolers everywhere.
2. The key term here is 'tried'. 'Tried'... at this point take A.I. rant about practice but replace 'practice' with 'tried'. Growing up, how many peoples' parents let them have a sip of their wine or beer. Better yet, how many people had that little thimble of wine at church? 'Tried' constitutes a sip or a taste. For all we know, they tried alcohol with their parent. Once again, trying to make a huge conclusion from a relatively meaningless result... something researchers do all the time to try and make a name for themselves.
3. Introduce alcohol education in elementary school... I think that the older we get the more we forget how we thought as children or maybe these researchers don't have children or have little experience with children because from my experience, the more you tell a kid to not do something that millions of adults do, the more inclined they will be to want to try it. When I was in elementary school, alcohol was just something Dad drank. I spent as much time thinking about alcohol as I did thinking about a 401k. By introducing the idea of alcohol and that it's something kids should avoid, the more they will think about it and the more they think about it, the more likely they will be tempted to try it.

Here's a fascinating idea, don't introduce alcohol education classes to elementary students and don't try to create a big conclusion from a small sample, and more importantly a small sip. Instead, go home to your kids and be a mailto:F@$%5E&ing PARENT!!!!! It shouldn't be up to a 5th grade teacher to educate your son or daughter on why alcohol is bad, but it is your responsibility as a parent to know what the eff your kid is doing and be involved in their life. Middle schoolers can't drive and they can't hold jobs, so where and how are they acquiring alcohol? That is the question we should be answering. If more parents parented instead of point a finger at everyone and everything besides themselves for their kids' behavior, perhaps all these kids might grow up with some commonsense and be able to make good, informed decisions.