- The role of nutrition, medicine, and health care professionals in preventing and treating disease.
- The difficulties of recognizing which substances are safe to eat or touch; ways to learn whether a substance is safe: consulting with an adult, reading labels.
- The effects of poisons on the body; the effects of medicine on body chemistry: the wrong drug may make a person ill.
- The nature of habits: their conscious and unconscious development.
Sample topics for secondary school:
- Stress: how the body responds to stress; how drugs increase stress.
- The chemical properties of drugs.
- The effects of drugs on the circulatory, digestive, nervous, reproductive, and respiratory systems. The effects of drugs on adolescent development.
- Patterns of substance abuse: the progressive effects of drugs on the body and mind.
- The drug problem at school, among teenagers, and in society.
Children tend to be present-oriented and are likely to feel invulnerable to long-term effects of drugs. For this reason, they should be taught about the short-term effects of drug use—such as impact on appearance, alertness, and coordination—as well as about the cumulative effects.
Sample learning activities for elementary school:
- Make a coloring book depicting various substances. Color only those items that are safe to eat.
- Use puppets to dramatize what can happen when chemicals are used.
- Write stories about what to do if a stranger offers candy, pills, or a ride.
- Discuss options in class.
- Try, for a limited time, to break a bad habit. The teacher emphasizes that it is easier not to start a bad habit than to break one.
Sample learning activities for high school:
- Discuss the properties of drugs with community experts: physicians, scientists, pharmacists, or law enforcement officers.
- Interview social workers in drug treatment centers. Visit an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. These activities should be open only to mature students; careful preparation and debriefing are essential.
- Research the drug problem at school, in the community, or in the sports and entertainment fields.
- Design a true/false survey about drug myths and facts; conduct the survey with classmates and analyze the results.
- Develop an accessible lending library on drugs, well stocked with up-to-date and carefully chosen materials.
When an expert visits a class, both the class and the expert should be prepared in advance. Students should learn about the expert's profession and prepare questions to ask during the visit. The expert should know what the objectives of the session are and how the session fits into previous and subsequent learning. The expert should participate in a discussion or classroom activity, not simply appear as a speaker.
OBJECTIVE 2: To respect laws and rules prohibiting drugs.