cannabisnews.com: School Anti-Drug Effort Tries New Approach





School Anti-Drug Effort Tries New Approach
Posted by FoM on February 16, 2001 at 07:52:34 PT
By Donna Leinwand, USA Today
Source: USA Today 
The nation's largest in-school drug-prevention program is testing a new curriculum in six cities after weathering more than a decade of complaints that its approach is outmoded and ineffective.The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, which is taught in 80% of U.S. schools and reaches 36 million youths annually, will shift its focus from lectures by uniformed police officers to interactive discussions and role-playing activities about making healthy choices. Police officers will serve as facilitators.
The new curriculum will be tested on about 50,000 students in 80 high schools and their 176 feeder middle schools in six metropolitan areas. Likely locations for the pilot program include Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City and Houston.The schools will begin teaching the new curriculum in September. University of Akron researchers will monitor the program and students for five years to gauge its effectiveness. The study and new curriculum are funded with a $13.7 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation."This is a major revision," says Glenn Levant, president of DARE America. "This is a cutting-edge incorporation of the very latest science-based prevention techniques."DARE also will offer a free, revised curriculum for parent education in September.The revisions to DARE come after several studies indicated parental involvement is the most critical factor in youths' decisions not to use drugs.DARE has gotten mixed reviews since its creation by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1983. As early as 1987, studies found many aspects of the program made no difference in whether youths rejected drugs.In 1990, a Canadian study found DARE had "no significant effect" on students' use of tobacco, beer, marijuana, acid, wine, heroin, crack and other illegal or regulated substances.In 1991, a study of Kentucky students by the National Institute of Drug Abuse found no difference in the percentage of new users of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana between kids who took part in a DARE program and those who did not. A study of 5,000 California students in 1995 said that programs such as DARE that rely on anti-drug lectures lacked credibility among teens.DARE, a non-profit group with a $227 million annual budget, including $1.7 million in federal funds, often fought such criticism by attacking the studies and offering more positive research. Source: USA Today (US) Author: Donna Leinwand, USA TodayPublished: February 16, 2001Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc Address: 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington VA 22229 Fax: (703) 247-3108 Contact: editor usatoday.com Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm CannabisNews DARE Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8682.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by freedom fighter on February 18, 2001 at 15:00:55 PT
New approach?
It is pretty sad to know that people are going to test a new approach on "CHILDRUNNN". We seem not mind building the very latest science-based prevention(mind control) techniques on children. 
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Comment #2 posted by Dan B on February 16, 2001 at 13:49:51 PT:
Pedagogical Shifting
Police officers will serve as facilitators. Anyone familiar with American pedagogical theory (theories of education) should readily recognize the doublespeak of saying that police will no longer be the teachers, just "facilitators.""Facilitator" has become synonymous in pedagogical jargon with "teacher." The term "facilitator" implies a social-constructivist approach whereby the teacher uses such methods as Socratic questioning in class discussions and group activities (like "role playing") to get students to "create learning" for themselves. It is an effective teaching tool, but it will do no good once students realize that the information they are given to work with--and the leading questions they are asked to answer--have nothing to do with the truth. This program will fail to reduce teen drug use, like all the other D.A.R.E. programs. It is the same misinformation wrapped in a new package. All they are doing is taking that misinformation from the typical "lecture" model and placing it into a model consisting of "interactive discussions and role-playing activities." It's a pedagogical shift, not a shift toward the truth. What they will end up "learning" from this approach is that it does not matter how you package lies, once people begin to recognize them as lies, they cease to be effective.Dan B
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Comment #1 posted by J.R. Bob Dobbs on February 16, 2001 at 11:53:11 PT
Drugs Are Really Expensive
  All the big-time dope fiends I've ever met had their own stash of DARE items and would wear the logo regularly...  And isn't a "dare", in the classic sense, something that forces someone to do something they would otherwise not do? Due to peer pressure no less?  Dare to declare peace! I double-dog Dutch-doobie dare ya!
DARE to learn the TRUTH!
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