Schools
Teaching About Drug Prevention
Recommendation #7:
Implement a comprehensive drug prevention curriculum from kindergarten through grade 12, teaching that drug use is wrong and harmful and supporting and strengthening resistance to drugs.
A model program would have these main objectives:
- To value and maintain sound personal health.
- To respect laws and rules prohibiting drugs.
- To resist pressures to use drugs.
- To promote student activities that are drug free and offer healthy avenues for student interests.
In developing a program, school staff should:
- Determine curriculum content appropriate for the school's drug problem and grade levels.
- Base the curriculum on an understanding of why children try drugs in order to teach them how to resist pressures to use drugs.
- Review existing materials for possible adaptation. State and national organizations—and some lending libraries—that have an interest in drug prevention make available lists of materials.
In implementing a program, school staff should:
- Include all grades. Effective drug education is cumulative.
- Teach about drugs in health education classes, and reinforce this curriculum with appropriate materials in such classes as social studies and science.
- Develop expertise in drug prevention through training. Teachers should be knowledgeable about drugs, be personally committed to opposing drug use, and be skilled at eliciting participation by students.