Alcohol Education for College Students: Seize The Teachable Moments
by RICK BARNES
The stories hit the news with alarming regularity.
“Every time another student dies from alcohol poisoning on a college campus, it sends a message. Every time another organization faces a crisis with risk management, it sends a message,” said Rick Barnes.
These moments provide opportunities for discussion, Rick said, but we need to be careful to avoid a preachy tone. “We, as educators, need to avoid the temptation to use these teachable moments as justification for a message of abstinence or condemnation, which just doesn’t work for students.”
Barnes has been touring college campuses with his “Drink Think” program for almost a decade. For him, success on this topic means saying things that relate to students where they are, right now in their lives, without a condescending tone or authoritative perspective. That means taking an incident in the news and making it personally relevant to student audiences.
“Statistics and studies, administrators and some advisors love that stuff,” Rick said. “But the students just turn off to that. It feels like they are in class again when you use that approach. Students only want what’s real to them. Sometimes the shocking story they’re reading about on Facebook has six times the impact of your average alcohol education program.”
Using those teachable moments—whether it’s from a celebrity news event, a local tragedy or a challenging leadership situation—is one way to make the issues surrounding alcohol abuse real to students. “Sometimes,” Rick said, “it’s simply about inviting them to consider how things might have ended up differently if better choices were made.”
He also uses this approach when discussing risk management topics with fraternity and sorority communities or with student affairs staff trainings.
“Leading a guided discussion and filling in the knowledge blanks can really be all some groups need,” Rick said. “Many groups already know where the danger spots are. My job is often to help them get the courage to make the changes they already know they need to make.”
For more information about Rick, his keynote Drink Think,or to bring Rick to your campus, visit campuspeak.com/barnes.
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