Hungover Norwegian pupils to get extra two hours in bed (SOCIALISM GONE MAD ALERT)

Students at a Norwegian school are to be given an extra two hours in bed each morning next month - to help them cope with their hangovers.

A school in Rogaland says students can skip their first two lessons during their celebrations in the run-up to their final exams.

Final year students traditionally spend much of the three weeks before their exams at a series of drunken parties.

Known as the 'RUSS' celebrations, the 18-year-olds party in special buses kitted out with beds, bars and music systems.

But the parties take their toll. Last year there were reports of students falling asleep while their exam papers were being handed out.

Torolv Hellemo, principal of Hetland VGS, told Aftenposten: "If some of the students do not feel well enough to have lessons, it is better for them to arrive at 9.30am.

"It might sound silly, but we have experience in this. It does not mean that we legalise drunkenness, but we are being realistic."

The students usually have two hours of free periods in the middle of the day. During the May celebrations, the school has decided to move those two hours to the start of the day to give them a lie-in if they need one.

Just three weeks? That sounds like my entire four years of college (no wonder I only had a 2.9/4 GPA).

That was long ago when one proudly wore the badge of 'Party School'. No doubt about it, the proprietors of the Bulldog Tavern were sorry to see my friends and me depart Spokane.

I had PLENTY of motivation to graduate in 4 years: graduate, and enter the Army as a 2LT; or NOT graduate, and enter the Army as a Spec 4.

Considering the hours I invested into ROTC, my public accounting degree, and fulfilling the remaining requirements to graduate (senior thesis/141 undergrad hours), I managed to suck it up and get the job done.

Looking back on it, it seemed so easy in comparison to being in the real world: wife, kids, mortgage, etc. No wonder my college memories are 99%+ happy/fond.

This just in: Various United States colleges and universities know for their festive atmosphere have adopted a new policy of no-absence Fridays.

Said one dean "We know the kids are going out and getting drunk on Thursday nite and then not showing up for class on Friday. Since we can't make headway at getting them to class and failures and incompletes look bad, we've decided that participation in Friday class is not mandatory and cannot be held against a student missing the class. We encourage the professors to schedule non-course related lectures and film strips for Fridays so students will not miss any valuable course related infomation. Quizes and exams on Fridays are strictly forbidden"

Said one professor , "Making the Friday class completely irrelevant and doing away with any consequences for absence on Fridays is following a proven liberal theory of no punishments with hopes of encouraging participation and attendance."

Please note the above is satire though unfortunately life can and will imitate art.

I appreciate you effort of doing a search to find out the actual facts of a particular country's policies. Sometimes they are different than you might think. For instance, did you know that Sweden has the toughest drug laws (and enforcement) in Europe and one of the lowest rates of drug usage? Hard to believe, but true. Allow me to excerpt an article from the British journalist Melanie Phillips's web site:

The Swedish war on drugs

By Melanie Phillips. First published in the Daily Mail, July 12 2002.

Much of the drugs debate in Britain is driven by despair that virtually nothing can be done to stem the rising tide of abuse. Yet the experience of Sweden, to which virtually no attention has been paid, dramatically shows how it is possible to get on top of the drugs menace by adopting a far more tough-minded approach than anything seen here.
Compared with Britain, their drug problem is miniscule. Around 11 per cent, of schoolchildren there have tried drugs, compared to around 45 per cent in Britain.
[snip]
The Swedes deliver an utterly unambiguous message: all drugs do harm that society will not tolerate. Unlike Britain, they don’t talk about drug ‘abuse’ as if this is different from use. To the Swedes, all drug use is abuse.
From this, certain things follow. First, law enforcement does not differentiate between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ drugs. That doesn’t mean saying all drugs have the same effect; clearly they do not. It means instead accepting they are all illegal because they all result in harm to individuals and society that is totally unacceptable.
Cannabis, for example, is seen as a menace in itself, with the Swedish health ministry emphasising the risks it poses of mental illness and social withdrawal.
Second, they do not make the distinction made in Britain between users and dealers. Concentrating effort on drug dealers – as we do – is fruitless. The supply of drugs is not only unlimited, but is driven by demand. So while the dealers should not be ignored, an effective drugs policy has to concentrate on damping down demand.
That depends on delivering a consistent message that drug use simply will not be tolerated. It is illogical and counter-productive, say the Swedes, to throw the book at drug dealers while regarding users as victims. It is vital instead to see drug users as people who are breaking the law and violating moral and social norms. So in Sweden, not just possession but drug use itself is a criminal offence.
This does not mean everyone smoking a joint gets thrown into jail. Criminal sanctions are mainly used against the dealers. What it does mean is that law enforcement, treatment and education all sing from the same hymn sheet and make the drug user the focus of firm attention.
Because drug use is illegal, the police can request blood or urine samples to test for drugs where they suspect they are being used. According to Ralf Löfstedt, the deputy director of Sweden’s Health and Social Affairs ministry who gave evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, drug users are identified at an early stage and are prosecuted but not jailed.
Information about them is then passed onto welfare agencies, who deal with the users’ needs through appropriate treatment. A lot of money is spent on detoxification and treatment programmes; drug withdrawal treatment in prison is compulsory; and prisoners can spent part of their sentences in treatment programmes out of jail.
Very heavy emphasis is put on prevention. Accordingly, there are specific police initiatives directed at street dealing, raves and other youth activities. Even more important, social workers, teachers, youth workers and police deliver an uncompromising message to young people: drugs are not to be used.
[snip]

What is described here is not a new development, but rather longstanding policy. Anyone's chances of reading about it in English-language mass media, which tell you only that sophisticated Europe has abandoned outmoded ideas of prohibition, are very low indeed. If you want to read the entire article, click the above link and go to the 2002 archive of articles.

My dad always said if you're going to go out and play with the boys, you have to get up and work with the men. This is why things like picking rock, haling bales, and moving fenceposts were reserved for early sunrise mornings after I was out too late.

Sounds like your dad and my dad should get together and start a "Reality Bites" Training Camp for Unruly Teens.

I got really drunk once on a Friday night as a teen. My friends brought me home. [I had good friends. (They too were the result of "Reality Bites" parenting.) They wouldn't let me drive, and dropped me and my car off at my home. (They weren't fools, though. They took one look at my dad's scowling face in the window, and fled for their lives. Cowards.)]

Anyway... The following morning I was rudely awakened bright and early and put to work on what was supposed to be my day to relax and sleep in. I spent the entire day doing housework and yard work with a head-splitting hangover. The yard work must have been my dad's idea. He's good with equations such as:

Lawnmower Motor + Hangover = "Please, someone, just kill me now."

Diabolical, but effective. I never stumbled home drunk, again.

My parents are hard to explain. They may sound strict, but actually they were pretty permissive. The catch was: though I could "do my own thing" without lectures or traditional punishments, they always made sure I paid the consequences for my actions (often with them being the ones who orchestrated the consequences).

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