If you’re young enough you probably grew up during the D.A.R.E. days of American school life. If you’re like me you have a difficult time remembering anything about it except all the over sized D.A.R.E. shirts, corny bumper stickers, and tree-killing information packets no kid every read ever except if they wanted to laugh. I honestly can’t recall anything any visiting D.A.R.E. team or other authoritarian voices ever told me about illegal drugs. After growing up and having kids drug-free in a world were drugs are as prevalent among younger people than ever, I don’t know if what they had to say ever really mattered to anyone.
That’s not to say that what they had to say didn’t need to be said. It’s imperative that kids understand the dangers of drugs as early as possible. The problem is they’re often being talked down to in a way that simply shuts them off to impressionability. Why can’t I remember what Officer Kirkpatrick had to say about marijuana to my 2nd grade class but I can remember recess drama just fine? Maybe because I was being told what was good for me and what wasn’t instead of simply being educated and expected to find out for myself.
I really hope my children never use drugs, even “light” ones like marijuana. But statistics overwhelmingly show that my children, or at least one of the two I have, will try an illegal drug in their lifetime. What’s a parent to do? I decided a year or so ago that I was going to redo D.A.R.E. but just for my family. Only this time it was going to educate, not dictate, drug awareness.
That’s easier said than done. Apart from drugging my children, which would unfortunately undermine my effort, there isn’t much I can do to encourage them to get educated about drugs that doesn’t leave that tinge of condescending concern that every kid is able to understand in the adults around them by age four. But it’s not impossible. My daughter has been taking Spanish lessons recently so I took the opportunity to link her to videos de narcotrafico on Spanish-speaking websites. She surprisingly saw right past the gimmick and was just happy to find a place to hear people speak the language natively on a regular basis. She’ll probably branch off into video categories more up her ally, probably something about J-Lo no doubt, but the seeds were planted when she watched footage of coca fields being set ablaze.
My son will be harder to coax because he’s a lot more jaded when it comes to drug education. I’m sure a few no-nonsense cops came to talk at his school once and it made the whole idea of anti-drug discussion totally uncool. But you know, he does like a good crime flick. When he’s old enough I certainly won’t be opposed to letting him watch the innumerable gangster movies that revolve around drugs. Why? Tell me, of “Scarface”, “Goodfellas”, “Blow”, “Traffic”, et cetera, which one has a happy ending? Maybe all he needs to see is Tony Montana drop dead from machine gun fire to get the point that drugs are just dangerous.
My children need to know that doing drugs is not a disqualifier for my love and respect. Too many anti-drug campaigns focus on the notion that illegal drug use is the biggest violation of self-respect. Sometimes I wonder if talking down to kids about drugs is a sign of not giving them enough respect in the first place.
As many people decorate their homes, many people will purchase new tables. Generally, they will be looking for cocktail tables as well as accent tables to place in their living rooms. They can also be found in family rooms as well.
