CRITICAL AGE - EXTENDING D.A.R.E. TO OLDER STUDENTS MIGHT MAKE MESSAGE STICK

Early elementary school students, for the most part, do what you ask.

Authority figures command attention and respect, their demands considered
near gospel.

For the most part.

These are the conformist years, when young students follow the crowd,
dictated by the appropriate leader.

So when an authority figure -- teacher, preacher, police officer -- tells
an early elementary student to do something, chances are they'll do it. And
if they were told not to do something, they'd rather catch cooties than
disobey that order.

Don't color outside the lines!

OK!

Don't hit your classmate!

OK!

Don't do drugs!

OK!

But as the years go on, the crowd-pleasing desire takes a turn for the
worse and far too often the authority figure becomes a dominating peer
rather than the teacher, preacher, cop, D.A.R.E. officer.

Adult figures lose their coolness, you could say, as students approach
high-school age.

But the message, the dos and don'ts of life, is never more meaningful, more
critical than when students approach the age when the dangers far surpass a
bout of cooties.

D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) catches children in those
impressionable years, older grade-school and middle-school students. The
nation's largest substance-abuse prevention program mostly targets children
more receptive to adult advice, with a curriculum including nonviolent
conflict resolution, good decision-making skills and resistance to
peer-group pressure.

The younger students need this, for sure, but traditionally D.A.R.E.
emphasis tapers off in high school -- when mastery of those skills is never
more important.

High-schoolers, bombarded by enough negative, enticing messages from all
mediums of entertainment, may be hit by the D.A.R.E. message more
frequently, according to a recent news release. The prevention program
plans to initiate a new curriculum in six U.S. cities, shifting its
emphasis to students in the older grades.

The program, funded by a $13.7 million grant from The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, will be tested in 80 high schools and their respective 176
middle schools. Schools from Wichita Falls are not included in the experiment.

Researchers hope to discover that by extending D.A.R.E. into the older
grades, the message will stick, that tapering off at the middle school
leaves high-schoolers vulnerable to the alternative messages.

Districts such as the Wichita Falls Independent School District could learn
from the research. D.A.R.E. may also find that high-schoolers won't be
receptive to advice given by the blatant authority figure, individuals they
consider uncool.

More positive results may come if the instructors preached not from their
traditional pulpit, in full uniform, but from a more informal, at-ease
stance. It's worth considering.

Don't do drugs!

Instead of a collective, sing-song "OK," the instructor may get a "Yea,
whatever."

They may shrug their shoulders, but at least they're getting the message.