For the past 27 years D.A.R.E has
been touching the lives of kids. DARE is
a program that gives children the information and skills they need to live a
drug and violence free lives. “The mission is to equip kids with the tools that
will enable them to avoid negative influences and instead, allow them to focus
on their strengths and potential. And, that's exactly what D.A.R.E. is designed
to do. Additionally, it establishes positive relationships between students and
law enforcement, teachers, parents, and other community leaders. Every
youngster should have the opportunity to grow-up healthy, safe, secure, and
equipped with the skills needed to succeed in life. Contemporary America,
however, is rampant with challenges that could keep children from a positive
life path.” (DARE, 1996)
DARE has done a
very good job at trying to find healthy places for kids to live and learn they
are dedicated to what they teach. At glance DARE is a program in which local
law enforcement agencies and local schools join together to teach students
about the consequences of substance abuse and violence. The program is designed
to be delivered between the grades of k and 12. It has gone under multiple
changes in the past 27 years. The program reaches millions of children in all
50 states as well as 43 countries and also all the United States Territories have
the program in place. (DARE, 1996) DARE
has more than 50,000 officers to teach the material of the dare program.
I think one of the
best aspects of the program is developing a healthy relationship between the
children and law enforcement and teachers. Since many of the kids will be
adults they will hopefully learn not to fear the police but to trust them and
go to them with any problems they have within their community. Also the
relationship that the children will get with their teachers will help them. Children
now have healthy role models to look up too.
Instead of figures like wrestling stars, where the good guy becomes the
bad guy and the bad guy becomes the good guy.
Or for example Tiger Woods a person that was looked up to by so many
young and old now has the negative image. It’s very hurtful for children to see
their heroes turn in to the bad guys. With the reinforcement of positive role
models that won’t let them down it can only be positive and strengthen the
relationship between the two.
DARE also provides lots of knowledge about drugs. While
looking at the website I found many links for parents as well that would help
inform them about some of the drugs that are going around the schools and world
today. It is very important now days to make sure that kids are knowledgeable
of drugs so that they will not try them. By making kids aware of the
consequences of them and the harmful effects they can have on their body, So
that they will not be prown to make the negative choices and experiment with
drugs or alcohol.
I think the dare program would be much more effective in
an 8th grade class room. I think in 5th and 6th
grade the kids are not fully aware of consequences. But in 8th grade
the students are more aware of what is out in the world and will start wanting
to experiment with alcohol and some drugs. I think in 6th grade it
is almost seen as not a serious topic to them because it’s not prevalent around
them yet. In a study it was shown that
the 7th grade results were better when compared to a 5th
grade class. (Hansen, 1996) although according to a DARE leader says he can’t show
us any numbers, because the number that they are worried about is the numbers
that don’t show up. (Hanson, 2002) meaning that the kids that don’t have
problems with drugs or alcohol or domestic abuse when an adult won’t show up
because they will not be in the justice system. Showing that the program helps
very much. Although there are many people that have a problem with DARE saying
that it is counterproductive and drive the kids to experiment with the drugs
and alcohol. I say that the kids that want to experiment will experiment that’s
why there is no bigger role model then the Childs parents.
http://www.alcoholfacts.org/DARE.html
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10826089609063981
http://dare.org/home/THEDAREMISSION.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.A.R.E
Very interesting article. I am not familiar with the changes that D.A.R.E. has gone through since I was subject to it. However, I do remember when I took D.A.R.E. classes they did tell us about the harmful effects of the drugs, yet their downfall was also mentioning the experience of how you feel after taking the drug. Telling a young child that marijuana makes you feel really happy, or dizzy, or that other drugs may cause you to hallucinate things that aren't really there, is more exciting than "this drug can kill". Honestly those were the things that stuck out to my classmates and I after taking D.A.R.E. I don't do drugs, but I do feel that my D.A.R.E. classes had nothing to do with my decision not to. I'm not saying its a bad thing, and as I said I am not familiar with the changes in the past years, but I know it didn't help me in any way.
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of the DARE program for reasons other than for its effectiveness. I have seen studies that show DARE does not have much of any effect on students' future drug activity. With this said, I have also never seen a study showing that DARE has an adverse effect. As JoeHern said, DARE is an excellent progam in that it gives students a positive view of law enforcement and positive role models to interact with on a regular basis. The program might not be as solid in validity, but the other benefits do outweigh this. In addition to the DARE program, my community implements an Explorer progam. This program is specifically intended to increase youth interactions with law enforcement. The combination of the two programs is a great head-start to increasing youth awareness of the world ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I was very influenced by the D.A.R.E program. The officer we had come in was one of the main reasons why I want to become a police officer. D.A.R.E doesn't have the same effect on children these days like they did when we were growing up. Even then I would get mad when the students in my classes would make fun of the officer. Looking back they are the same student's who haven't furthered their education or have a job or even a car. We see today that statistics show that D.A.R.E no longer has an impact on students, but like Adam stated above, there also isn't a study that shows that D.A.R.E has a bad effect. The program is used to show build community policing and hopefully gain a positive impact on younger students, so that they may change their ways or prevent bad to even happen to begin with.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article, I have read that D.A.R.E. was highly ineffective. I think that the concept of D.A.R.E. is great idea. I just don't that teaching a bunch of curious preteens about the side effects of drugs and telling them they should not be using them is a good idea. When i was in 5th grade when they ran the program most of my classmates were trying to break the rules and push boundaries with parents and teachers. Most of my classmates that started experimenting with drugs such as marijuana started right around the beginning of junior high which is around the time D.A.R.E. classes were given. I think that waiting until 7th grade instead of 5th grade is a good idea as stated in the blog because the students might recognize the consequences of drug use as serious. I think D.A.R.E is a great idea but it is not taken seriously by the students that take the class. It was kind of a joke when I took the class and ten years later when my little took the class it was still kind of a joking matter among students.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure that it is useful. I never went through DARE because I'm old but I do remember when the program first came out their big selling point was that the DARE officer drove a car that they seized from a drug dealer. Looking back on things I don't think that kids have the capacity to understand the message that was being sent. Young kids think money grows on trees! Also, how smart is it to show little kids drug paraphernalia and tell them how drugs make you feel?
ReplyDeleteMy little brother told me that he thought the DARE classes were stupid. We all know people who wear DARE shirts ironically. Honestly, I see more openness about drug use by people just a few years younger than me than I do with people my age and older (& now that I think about it, it's always been that way). So I'd have to agree with some of the other commenters. DARE seems to be a joke. Perhaps if they pushed it back to 8th grade or freshman year but 5th graders? I'm not so sure about that.
I am very skeptical of the DARE program. I love what they stand for and what they try to do, but do they really accomplish their goal? I knew many kids in high school that were part of the DARE project and were on commercials and in the papers all over our town promoting not drinking and using drugs but what the people looking at the billboards didn't know was who those people really were. So many of the kids that are in the program completely contradict what they are supposed to be doing and what the entire purpose of the the group is. To be quite honest i never even knew what dare was for the longest time. I think that your right its kind of ridiculous for 5th graders to have to go through dare programs but i do believe that 8th grade is when they should go through a class and become aware of what is out there. I think that there needs to be some hard evidence on if the classes even work though.. i think it could potentially be a huge waste of money.
ReplyDeleteJoe, I can relate totally to this article because I did a research study on it last year. I hypothesized that the DARE program was ineffective to kids when implemented at too young of an age. Your last paragragh touches on that perfectly. I was able to find that children at the 4th and 5th grade level could care less about an officer coming in to talk about things that they have never heard of. A 5th graders mind isn't 100 percent in the classroom. They're still focused on the episode of Spongebob Squarepants that they watched before coming to school. Also the use of the flashy incentives like the DARE badges, and colorful light up pens do a far better job of holding a 4th graders attention than does a presentation about marijuana. The mindset of an eighth grader is a little different however. That's the age where kids begin to think they know everything about the world, and thus it is a good time to start DARE if they really want to get a positive effect out of it. Bottom line is that the DARE program should hold off presenting itself until the child reaches a responsible and relateable age, otherwise this can be a big waste of time, money, and resources.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the DARE program works at all. I believe this because in another criminal justice class our professor straight out said the program was ineffective. Much like the teaching of health ed the schools seem to take a much too conservative approach that leaves no room for a youth's error. I do not think safe drug use can really be taught but other tactics and programs must be initiated. Programs that aim at teaching parent effective tactics to prevent their children from using drugs would be much more useful in my opinion.
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