NEW DARE STRESSES THINKING SKILLS

Dewitt Teaches From Revised Curriculum

DARE is changing.

Following studies showing the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program
is ineffective, the national organization that oversees DARE programs
is testing a new curriculum aimed at seventh- and ninth-graders and
has changed the program offered since 1983 to fifth- and
sixth-graders.

Jim Hildmann, an investigator and youth services officer with the
DeWitt Police Department, has started teaching the new curriculum to
fifth- and sixth-graders.

"I really like the new way," he said.

Instead of lecturing to pupils, he encourages them to think and discuss issues.
The focus of the revised curriculum is on building decision-making
skills to help the pupils solve difficult personal and social problems
related to substance abuse, he said.

"It's a whole different philosophy. It's a way to let them do more of
the talking," he said.

Hildmann teaches the program at Holy Cross School, Manlius Pebble Hill
School and Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School.

The new program uses much of the same information about drugs. But the
information is now presented in 10 weeks instead of 17.

The information also has been updated to reflect the changes in society.
"This is a
huge change for the better," Hildmann said.

Class topics include tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, social
support networks, advertising of products, peer pressure, confidence
and response styles.

In the new format, pupils break into groups to discuss the topics,
Hildmann said. A new and more colorful workbook has been created.

The new curriculum for fifth- and sixth-graders comes as the national
DARE program is studying a new program developed for seventh- and
ninth-graders, said Michael Roona, executive director of Social
Capital Development Corp. in Albany.

Roona, a board member of Syracuse-based ReconsiDer, a nonprofit group
that favors studying alternatives to the current national drug policy,
said the problem with DARE is it doesn't reach youths at an age when
they are likely to experiment with drugs.

Roona serves on a national advisory committee that helped develop the
new curriculum for older students. He also will help review the
results of a five-year study of its effectiveness.

The five-year pilot study in six cities in the United States will see if
educating
older students works better, he said. The study began in 2001, and
students in the six cities receive drug education in seventh and ninth
grades and are surveyed on drug use when they reach 11th grade.

"Eleventh grade is a good time to see if the program works because
heavy users haven't dropped out yet, so the statistics are more
accurate," Roona said. The new program is being tested at 176 middle
schools in New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, N.J., St. Louis
and Detroit.

The fifth- and sixth-grade program was changed in an effort to create
something more effective for those age groups, Roona said.

Some local school districts don't use the program.

Manlius police teach at East Syracuse-Minoa schools but not in the
Fayetteville-Manlius district, said Capt. Bill Bleyle. The program
fits well into the health curriculum at ES-M, he said, but was
duplicating what was being taught at F-M and was dropped after a few
years, he said. Manlius police have been involved in DARE since 1990,
he said.

In Camillus, DARE was dropped in the 1998 school year in favor of a
program developed by the police department, the West Genesee school
district and the community.

Like the new DARE program being tested for seventh- and ninth-graders,
Camillus' Community Oriented Drug Education, or CODE, is taught at two
grade levels, fifth and seventh, said Camillus police Capt. Thomas
Winn.

The idea is to reinforce in middle school the lessons taught in
elementary school.

Winn said he thinks it's a good idea to extend drug education into
older grades. "We find that if kids make bad choices, it's in that
first year of high school," he said.

But Camillus is unlikely to adopt any new DARE programs even if the
new seventh- and ninth-grade initiative proves to be effective.

"We are so pleased with the (CODE) program," Winn said. "There's no
way we'll go back to DARE."

The homegrown program offers flexibility, Winn said, and can be changed as
needed.

But other police agencies are gearing up for the new DARE program.
Money for DARE was cut from the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department
budget last year, but school districts have been paying for the
program where deputies have been teaching, said Sgt. Richard McCarron,
who supervises the four deputies who teach DARE.

The deputies are excited about the new curriculum, McCarron said. "You
really hit on the key issues," he said.

The department plans to teach the new curriculum at seven schools
across the county this fall and possibly eight in the spring,
depending on the requests of various districts.

In Syracuse schools, fifth-graders instead of sixth-graders will get the
new DARE
program. Sixth-graders will be taught a new anti-gang program called
Gang Resistance through Education And Training, or GREAT, said Lt.
Rebecca Thompson, who heads the department's Family Services Division.

The program is sponsored by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms. The department was given a grant to begin the program.

"We are going to try to initiate both programs," she
said.

GREAT, like the new DARE curriculum, focuses on decision-making. The
instructors are still working on scheduling the classes in the city's
elementary schools, she said.

GREAT fits into a number of efforts by city police to reduce gang
violence, she said. "It's not a replacement, but it's a good
complement to DARE."