After surviving what can only be described as teaching to the test followed by attempting to put as much pressure on children as possible thinly disguised as "encouragement", even as far as to have parents design a cute little note designed to reinforce this one would think teaching the acutal curriculum would finally begin.
Not so fast...it's DARE time again. The only good thing I can say about it is this the last time I will have to go thru the DARE experience. Why Lucas County continues to waste funding on a program that doesn't work even by the admission of the Federal Government is beyond me. Yes DARE has claimed they have created the new and improved...DARE Plus, yet the basic facts still remain:
The present study examined the impact of Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a widespread drug-prevention program, 10 years after administration. A total of 1,002 6th grade students who had either received DARE or a standard drug-education curriculum, were reevaluated at age 20. Few differences were found between the 2 groups in terms of actual drug use, drug attitudes, or self-esteem, and in no case did the DARE group have a more successful outcome than the comparison group. Lynam, D.R., Milich, R., Zimmerman, R., Novak, S.P., Logan, T. K., Martin, C. Leukefeld, C., and Clayton, R.R. Project DARE: No Effects at 10-year Follow-Up. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 67, pp. 590-593, 1999.
The only positive information I've read about DARE Plus is in Minnesota boys who completed DARE Plus had less incidents of becoming violent with their male peers. While that is nice, it has nothing to do with the purported reason behind DARE which is supposed to be drug prevention.
I also am tired of not having a choice, realistically my options are to go along with this or pull my daughter out of school and homeschool her which is starting too look like a better option on an almost daily basis. I find it ironic that I am given the option of which movies I want her to view in school (don't even get me started on the waste of educational time for them to view movies that have no connection to anything educational) yet there is no way to opt out of DARE. Your lack of signature on their form doesn't prevent their inclusion. Especially since they had the first session before they even sent the form home.
Me being me...under my signature I wrote, "I would prefer that there be an alternative to DARE offered".
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9 comments:
Why, this is a sacred cow, Lisa. You are not allowed to question holy programs like DARE.
Last time YOU get a break on a speeding ticket.
:-}
One advantage of being carless right now, unless they are going to try to get me for speed walking.
:-)
I used to love when the DARE people would come to school. We would see footage of drug busts and got out of class.
I think everyone would be better off if DARE had my brother talking to kids. He is broke, with a bad liver, bad lungs, a crappy job, and convictions for several offenses involving drugs.
A visit to the County Jail, and to a drug rehab treatment center would probably do more than DARE, if we couldn't get your brother me4 Nor would that take weeks of classes and the even stupider "DARE Graduation" Program.
I remember taking DARE classes in junior high school. At first it seemed like a cool club, me being one already "converted" to the message, then I found out that the guy who was voted president was also the biggest pusher in school. It turns out it was a great way for him to make connections.
We had an abstinence group at my high school that worked the same way. I only know of one of them who didn't have sex while in high school.
In the end, it seems that adults forget (as they age) that kids aren't gullible the way many adults seem them as being gullible. To a certain extent, the label "gullible" often fits, but shaping a message because "kids will believe anything" doesn't work. And, while some of DARE's truths are true, enough of them aren't that even the kids who don't already use drugs know they're not true, loosing credibility for the whole message.
In Swantucky, us farm kids learned about drugs we'd never heard or thought of. However, I did enjoy looking at all the cool little illustrations in the workbooks.
Definitely think it would have been much more informative to have me4's brother talk to them. Doesn't make much sense to have a police officer come into the class, all saying "don't do drugs" when mom and dad are always speeding in their cars... sends the message to the kid... police officers are silly... just don't get caught!
My mom scared me straight with stories of her old friends when it came to drug use. Too bad they can't hire you out for that, eh?
(((Hugs))) for my Emily.
:-)
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