This last week I have heard some of my classmates talk about the Names program, training to help out in the antibullying program that Freshman go through. I was reminded of another anti-... program. D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). I did not go through that program myself since I left my old school district before junior high, but my brother did.
Do D.A.R.E. and Names actually do anything to help people? Do they prevent drug abuse and bullying? We like to think that they do. It seems like they should. It seems like they might. It seems to work adequately, so why look for another method?
I have heard sceptics of both progeams, children and their parents, that claim the programs have an overall negligible, or even negative, effect. I do not know of any solid evidence to support these claims, nor do I have any to refute them. Despite the lack of hard proof in my possesion, I do believe the sceptics have a point; have studies (repeatable, large scale, studies) been done to prove that D.A.R.E. and Names actually decrease pre-teen/teen drug use and bullying, respectively?
Since I did not go through the D.A.R.E. program myself, I will not comment on it further; however, like most NT students, I went the Names progam Freshman year. For myself and, from what I could see, for my peers, nothing changed. Well, not quite. People were a bit kinder and more careful with their words for a month or two, but soon the majority of the student population was back to the bullying, coercing, norm. (Which goes steadily down as we become older and more mature.)
Questions: Why does no one make a study of the results? (Or, why can I not find a study?) Why do we even have these programs in the first place?................(I truly do not understand why.)
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I would have to agree with you that such programs do little to reduce either the use of drugs and alcohol or bullying. I think that the reason for this is that students spend a lot of time with their peers and care about what their peers think of them much more than what one in-school assembly override. In short, peer pressure far outweighs the pressure to be kind or drug-free.
ReplyDeleteI cannot cite my source on this, but I have heard that if a students parents talk to them about and discourage them from drugs and bullying, then the child is much less likely to participate. I think that this is becuase (at least when you are a little younger) you parent's opinion tends to matter to you most of all (at least subconcsiously.)
I though Names was interesting. It was an opportunity to see others' perspectives, if anything. I'm unsure about its effectiveness, but I thought it was a good experience.
ReplyDeleteI think DARE is a lot different though. The information they give about drugs is totally black and white rather than comprehensive. Instead of being straightforward, they try and scare kids out of using drugs with exaggerated information. They even perpetuate rumors about marijuana that have been scientifically proven to be false (marijuana is a gateway drug, marijuana will permanently damage your brain, marijuana is more harmful than 4 cigarettes, etc), and this in turn undermines the legitimacy of the program entirely.
Here's a possibly useful link about DARE:
http://www.druglibrary.org/think/~jnr/darersch.htm