Ok, ok, the title sounds bad. But I also don't promote drugs & alcohol either. What I'm trying to say is that I remember being in elementary school. Year after year during Red Ribbon Week, we went through some sort of D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) or anti-drugs programs. As an elementary child, I thought, "Oh, of course I would never do anything like that." Many of my friends did too. I don't think these are bad programs, but I feel the reality of our world today needs a slightly different approach.
As kids get older, they think they know what they're doing, act like adults when they're not, make mistakes, learn from them, and hopefully think "Ugh, my mom was right." I was one of them. I didn't act on what I was told to do, I did what I wanted to do, then learned from it. All we can hope for as adults and teachers is that our kids make good choices and remember our voices/messages as they encounter situations of pressure as they get older. Don't get me wrong, I was NOT the kid who went off to college and used a bunch of drugs or went off the deep end. The only thing my D.A.R.E. education would be ashamed of would be the fact that I really like to enjoy a glass of wine (or two). Not that I'm doing that now while pregnant anyway.
So for Red Ribbon Week, I do it differently. I don't say, "Say no to drugs." I feel students need to learn that their choices lead to consequences, which can be good or bad. (This is a message I try to reinforce in every decision they make throughout the year.) Their LIFE choices can determine the roads that open or close in their future. Some consequences are small and we can bounce back from them pretty easily. Some consequences, especially as we get older and the risks are bigger, are life altering/threatening/uncontrollable. My approach with the kids starts with this chart below. They copy/take notes as I talk about each section.
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| I got this from a Marcia Tate classroom management workshop way back when. She was great and talked about how to manage a classroom based on brain behavior, etc. I immediately thought of Red Ribbon Week when I did this and have been using it ever since. It's a great way to teach kids about how drugs affect our brain and what happens when we have a chemical imbalance. |
