I did go through this DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program during middle school. The program was designed to make children aware of Drugs and their negative physical effects and mental effects.
There are many skeptics that don't think the DARE program is effective. My experience with the DARE program and looking back at it today I am one of those skeptics. The DARE program does not involve any type of counseling to help cope with self-esteem issues children may have. The DARE program presents the drugs, what they are, what they do, what the short term effects are, and what the long term effects are.
The truth is the DARE program only informs students of what the dangers are. Which to a child that has major self- esteem issues and that aren't receiving any type of counseling, those drugs may seem more appealing. In the DARE program I learned about many drugs I had never heard of. So for these children they are learning more about what drugs are out there.
The bottom line is without mental health care to help the children cope with their self-esteem issues the DARE program may help those children find a drug they might want to try.
I completely agree. I went through the D.A.R.E. program during middle school as well, and I felt that it was useless. They had a police officer teaching us basically the dangers of drugs. It felt more as if they were trying to use fear to prevent drug use. Additionally, I didn't really know much about drugs or even thought about it until I had did the program.
ReplyDelete