Dear Ann Landers,
as it ever occurred to you that your advice may be getting a little moth-eaten? You ought to re-examine your antiquated approach to alcohol and tone down your insistent lectures on the "evils" of drinking. Recent developments are making you look pretty stupid, Ann. Just a few weeks ago, I read that a Harvard professor who is an au-thority on alcoholism believes that children should be taught to drink liquor at an early age. He claims that if children grow up to accept liquor as just another ordinary beverage and not a devil in a bottle, they will attach no special significance to liquor and their chances for developing an unhealthy craving for it will be greatly reduced. I agree with the professor that the reason there are so many alco-holics around is because liquor was forbidden to them and they never learned how to handle it properly. I hope you will be big enough to print this letter and your answer. If you can think of one. -The New Look at Life

Dear New Look,
I am well aware of the professor's theory, and I do have an opinion that has been reinforced by a distinguished Washing-ton, D.C., psychiatrist-also Harvard-trained. I think your professor's theory is as sappy as a maple tree in April. The professor recommended that children be taught to drink alco-hol at an early age. According to him, a little sherry in the water for el-ementary school kids would be just dandy for openers. Tie Rest he \\hh 1 aiuneits ' 2 fi 7 Now, can't you just see a young mother sending her little tyke off to school, happy in the knowledge that her youngster is going to learn a great many things-including how to hold his liquor? I do not buy the professor's basic assumption that everybody is going to drink so they should learn how early-real early. If this theory is correct, why not teach kindergarten kids to smoke cigarettes and use narcotics-sparingly, of course. Your professor sets forth another premise that I believe is false-that liquor attracts and finally traps people because it is forbidden. Excessive drinking is rarely traceable to the forbidden-fruit doc-trine. A craving for alcohol is caused by a personality deficiency-a de-fect in the ego structure. People who drink too much usually blame outside pressures. The truth is, they reach for the bottled anesthetic because they lack the inner resources to tolerate the pain. I believe we should teach our youngsters the joy of achieving the re-wards that come from meeting a challenge with courage and confi-dence. It is a crime against humanity to give a child a crutch when he has two perfectly good legs. This is the best way I know to produce a generation of cripples. After studies done by some of the best authorities in the country, I came to agree with them that substance abuse has chemical underpinnings-that al-coholism is an illness, not a character flaw. Here is some information I hope will help those who need it: Are You an Alcoholic? Do you need a drink at a definite time every day? Do you prefer to drink alone? In the morning do you crave "the hair of the dog that bit you"? Is your drinking hurting your family in any way? Do you take a drink when you feel yourself getting the shakes? Is your drinking damaging your reputation? Do you lose time from work because of your drinking? Has drinking made you inconsiderate of your family's welfare? Have you, since drinking, become jealous or suspicious of your spouse? Have your initiative and perseverance decreased? Do you drink to relieve anxiety? Has your drinking made you more sensitive? Is it endangering your health? Do you show marked moodiness as a result of your drinking? Has your drinking made you harder to get along with? Is it making your home life unhappy? Is it jeopardizing your job or hurting your business or career? Has it made you irritable? Is drinking affecting your peace of mind? If you can answer "no" to every one of these questions, and if a mem-ber of your family agrees that your answers are correct, your drinking is under control-at least for the present. Every "yes" answer is a red light, which means there could be trouble ahead.