But we also know that defeating drugs is not easy. We cannot expect the schools to do the job without the help of parents, police, the courts, and other community groups. Drugs will only be beaten when all of us work together to deliver a firm, consistent message to those who would use or sell drugs: a message that illegal drugs will not be tolerated. It is time to join in a national effort to achieve schools without drugs.
SPECIAL SECTIONS
TEACHING ABOUT DRUG PREVENTION
Teaching About Drug Prevention: Sample Topics and Learning Activities
An effective drug prevention curriculum covers a broad set of education objectives. This section presents a model program for consideration by State and local school authorities who have the responsibility to design a curriculum that meets local needs and priorities. The program consists of four objectives, plus sample topics and learning activities.
OBJECTIVE 1: To value and maintain sound personal health; to understand how drugs affect health.
An effective drug prevention education program instills respect for a healthy body and mind and imparts knowledge of how the body functions, how personal habits contribute to good health, and how drugs affect the body.
At the early elementary level, children learn how to care for their bodies. Knowledge about habits, medicine, and poisons lays the foundation for learning about drugs. Older children begin to learn about the drug problem and study those drugs to which they are most likely to be exposed. The curriculum for secondary school students is increasingly drug-specific as students learn about the effects of certain drugs on their bodies and on adolescent maturation.
Sample topics for elementary school: