THE PURPOSE OF UPBRINGING IN ABSTHINENCE
All forms of alcohol abuse are a phenomenon with serious social consequences.
These abuses range from minor abstinence offenses, by drunkenness among a section of society, up to the situations, where alcoholism develops.
A particularly acute accent of the problem is the drinking of alcohol by young people, and especially by children.
Unlike in many other countries, in which large, even general, amounts of alcohol drunk are distributed more or less evenly among adult residents, in Poland we are dealing with the concentration of alcohol consumption. It's about that, that a significant minority of adults (about 8%) I drink most of it in a year (about 52%) total number of drinks consumed. This is a group of drunks. They are characterized not only by the total amount of alcohol they drink, but also the way of drinking and the type of drink: a lot of vodka at once.
In one of the following chapters, a medical specialist describes alcoholism as “a special disease, in which the biological and social aspects of the causes, symptoms and effects are intertwined", giving, that in Poland there are about half a million people suffering from alcoholism.
In the light of the assessment based on the results of scientific research, alcohol abuse in our country is and should be the subject of social interest, legal regulation and consistent awareness-raising and educational activities.
An objective assessment of the situation is an indispensable prerequisite for correct conclusions regarding the goal, tasks and methods of educating students in sobriety.
Act of 15 July 1961 year on the development of the education and upbringing system in Poland, that:
"Teaching and upbringing in schools and other educational institutions is aimed at comprehensive development of students and upbringing them into conscious and creative people".
Contemporary Polish pedagogy develops the above concise formulation of the aim of the didactic and educational work of the school, recognizing the comprehensive development of personality as the general goal of education. This assumption is served by the implementation of more detailed ones, but unified goals of mental education, moral, aesthetic and physical.
Modern pedagogy interprets these goals in psychological terms, and social, putting the goal of shaping personality in an active relationship before upbringing, creative human participation.
The goal of upbringing in sobriety is closely related to the general goals of upbringing; it is a component of the general model and pattern of upbringing.
We stand by, that the school, by shaping and preserving personality traits in the young generation, is consistent with a good human model, among them, it should also include shaping the life attitude of sobriety.
None of the tasks, which the school prepares students for today and in the future, it is impossible to reconcile with the habit of abusing alcohol; each requires upbringing in sobriety.
A more precise interpretation of the goal defined generally as an attitude of sobriety is needed. Opinions on this may vary.
By the attitude of sobriety, we mean abstaining completely from the use of alcoholic beverages until the age of majority, and after achieving it, a conscious and consistently practiced such attitude to the use of liquors, which precludes any form of abuse.
So it's about perpetuating this attitude, that a person may, under certain circumstances, abstain from drinking altogether, and in all situations of life he consistently maintained moderation in the use of alcoholic beverages. Moderation, which in the civilized world is rightly regarded as an indispensable attribute of true culture. Moderation, which determines the attitude of a fully valuable member of society.
One of the more serious consequences of the long-term personal carelessness of adolescents about their own ways of life is the lack of preparation to choose alternatives, when comes the age of decision-making. Instead of a conscious decision, we are dealing with accidental motives, which do not take into account social evaluations of values or the activity itself, nor its effects. This tends to have a bad effect on many areas of an individual's personal life and social relationships.
It is a socio-educational issue of exceptional importance for the upbringing of students in sobriety.
A set of formal and legal orders and prohibitions creates conditions that, to some extent, inhibit the spread of drunkenness and alcoholism, but does not exclude these possibilities. Ultimately, the decision is up to the person. Education in sobriety leads to making the right decision.
Don't expect quick or widespread results.
Alcohol abuse is a habit, which has a long tradition behind it. Changes in consciousness and customs take place at a slow pace and on a difficult way of clashing the old with the new. Reducing and gradually eliminating drunkenness and alcoholism is conditioned by many factors. Among them, however, educational factors are of primary importance.
This is not a theoretical assumption, nor a conclusion from the general trust in the educational influence of school on a person's life attitude. Experience confirms the relationship between appropriate educational work and the attitude of juveniles to drinking alcohol.
In France, the awareness-raising and educational work of teachers, consistently applied in some departments, resulted in a significant reduction in drinking wine with meals by adolescents. Anti-alcohol education has good results, e.g. in many schools in Sweden. In the history of Polish scouting, there are known positive results of a consistently observed and methodically correctly implemented promise, that the scout does not drink alcohol. Few, but the examples of results achieved by these schools in Poland are convincing, which do not treat awareness of the alcohol problem on the periphery of their didactic and educational activities.