Howard's Way

I never ever signed up to prohibition, as many colleagues felt obliged to do. My view was that this had been tried for years by schools and had proved unworkable. Sure, teachers banned alcoholic drinks and, equally for sure, pupils smuggled them along. And when some consumed too much, teachers had no idea what scale of problem they were dealing with.

So my view was that engagement in a more open, negotiated debate would be both more honest and more sensible. I thought such an approach was more in the spirit of broader youth work principles.

Through participation in the debate, there would be learning opportunities for young people, not just around booze but also about the social relationships and context within which it would be consumed. As a result, with young people around the age of 16 and above we discussed the consumption of alcohol on forthcoming residential weekends. We agreed - usually after a protracted debate - an acceptable upper limit for individuals and I insisted it was all placed in the open, forcefully emphasising my right to abandon our agreement if I discovered more alcohol had been surreptitiously brought along.