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Australian Department Of Education Scraps Plans to Take Kids to Nightclub for Educational Purposes

Now they'll have to borrow their older sibling's ID like everyone else.
Photo credit: Chasers / Facebook

Listen, kids have to learn how to slam a Jager bomb without hurling eventually. It's the kind of skill that if you master early, can really give a head start on your peers in life and business. Well at least that's what Australian drug and alcohol educational program AlcoCups figured. As part of a program to teach high school kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, the group had planned to host excursions to Melbourne nightclub Chasers. The thinking was that by providing students with a glimpse behind the overage social curtain, they could prepare them for avoiding the temptation of risky behaviour when they turn 18.

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Credit where it's due, AlcoCups really did the preparation to replicate the experience of being drunk and asking, "What the fuck am I doing at Chasers?" As part of the proposed program, AlcoCups founder Ashley Gurney planned to give out literal beer goggles to students to demonstrate what it feels like to have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.25. Ashley explained the reasoning to the Herald Sun, "Being in the nightclub kids can try them on and walk up and down the stairs or write a text message and easily see how much more vulnerable they can become." He didn't mention if they also made bro dudes' Family Guy references funny.

Read: I Spent A Night Touring Melbourne's Worst Rated Nightclubs

Jokes aside, Ashley highlighted some pretty solid points concerning teaching kids about the pressure to drink and take drugs as an adult. As well as how our national obsession with getting rat-arsed can make being responsible tough for young people. In relation to Australia's attitude to partying he continues, "We praise those people who are vomiting in a bush, saying they had a great night, rather than praising the sober guy walking them home."

Despite this, the program quickly drew criticism that eventually saw it abandoned by the Department of Education. According to the Herald Sun, university academics dismissed the idea saying it would promote the venue to kids. Because school sanctioned programs are obviously the reason kids are going to Chasers.

Our condolences to you AlcoCups, although we have an idea to scare kids off drinking and drugs for you. Take them out with someone in their late 20s, let them get a couple of drinks in, do a line, and make them listen to their host try sell them Herbalife and complain about how they've fucked everyone on Tinder. Terrifying.

Follow Wendy Syfret on Twitter for a real lesson in partying.