<a href="http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/02/16/dare/index.html">This Salon article</a> says that DARE is actually counter-productive, that kids who go through the program are MORE likely to do drugs than kids who don't, and that they are looking into changing it. Critics say they aren't likely to change the program enough to make a difference.

So it turns out that a bunch of overly-simplistic homilies, casual lies, and suggestions to rat on your own parents don't convince kids to stay away from drugs. Turns out that people in the prevention community have known for a long time that DARE doesn't work and it was just politically unpopular to de-fund it.

I think all that started when I was in 5th or 6th grade. And the funny thing is...I never remember going through any of the "programs." Maybe my school either a) didn't get funds to run it (since I went to a parochial school) or b) our church figured that us "good Catholics" would never do drugs...even though they offered us wine at Mass on Sunday. ;-)

I regard those DARE license plates as a joke. Most often the Dare plate is on a car where the driver is doing his drugs and throwing butts out the windows. Go figure. There is little difference between a tobacco addict and a crack addict - according to recent studies involving PET scans on human brain activity. IOW the DARE thing is really nonsense because it is based upon drugs from a legal perspective rather than drugs from a reality perspective.

My daughter went through DARE in 5th grade and her and her
classmates truly believed what they were taught...of course in 5th grade most kids will and want to believe almost anything they are taught. This is especially true if it makes them look good in their parent's, teacher's and Mr. Policeman's vision.

We are now experiencing 7th grade and my daughter and her classmates want to do exactly the opposite of what parents, teachers etc... ask them to do. DARE or some equivalent should have a follow up every year. Just a review by teachers would work just to keep it in the forefront of their young minds.

The message shouldn't just come from DARE, it is the responsibilty of the parents to really enforce the "just say no" theory. Kids receive maybe 4 to 5 months of DARE instruction at 10 years of age and people expect that to be a cure all from Drugs?!?!?!? Hello!! I talk to my daughter regularly about drugs and we role play. They have to know it's okay to "just say no" and how to say it in many different situations. Let's not put all the blame on a program, what are we as adults doing to influence the children in our lives?

That's just it. They want to do exactly the opposite of what parents, teachers, etc. ask them to do. So when the chant over and over and over is "Just Say No", drugs become more of a focus point for rebellion. A lot of these kids wouldn't have even thought of drugs before. Now they have a guide to how much of a rebellion each drug is.

That's the main reason why DARE is ineffective. It might as well be an advertisement for drugs. And slogans aren't for teaching; they're for campaigns about attitudes, not truth. And they're patronizing as hell, at a time in life when being patronized is exactly what teens don't want.

Prediction: DARE is gonna reposition itself as a saftey program. In Elmira, NY the kid who brought guns and bombs to Southside High School was apprehended by the DARE officer who knew the kid from propagandizing him.

Is there an anti-DARE parents organization out there? I put my kids in parochial school, in part, because our Catholic school emphasizes parental responsibility and because it would reduce my kids contact with state coercion. I'd hate to see my school fall for this guff.

Re: I knew it! DARE a bust
 

Homeschool works because the parents are involved in the child's education. Voucher system works (on paper) because the statistics are distorted by the same condition. A parent not involved in the child's life is three times more likely to see a kid with social, legal, and grade problems.

Look at Allentown - fast becoming a suburb of NYC. What happens when a parent works 8 hours in NYC, an hour lunch, and 3.5 hours every day commuting? Humans only have 14 hours each day. Now that parent will blame the school system or demand DARE? Go figure. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management - the parents.

You can tell which schools have lower standards - less parents appear in Parent Teacher Night meetings. Even worse, why do politicans forget to mention any of this when they preach vouchers, school uniforms, more money, smaller class sizes, making teachers accountable, etc. Why? Because those lies and half truths get a politican elected. WE so often fail to indentify why the kid shot his schoolmates or built bombs. We fail to hold the parent - top management - responsible. Political sharks just feed on our denials.

Successful school programs, whether they be anti-drug or better education, required top management (parental) participation.

Traffic, the movie, only demonstrates that (and other) points that have been known longer than I existed. And yet we still try to solve a philophy problem with quick programs such as DARE - and a silly, wasteful War on Drugs.

There's been several studies showing that DARE doesn't work or is counterproductive. All pooh-poohed as ungoodthink by the Powers That Be.

Until the PTB give up on both "drugs are bad" and "minors using drugs are really bad", things won't change. Don't hold your breath.

What Griff said
 

Today I saw a DARE bumper sticker that said "to resist drugs and violence". Or something like that.

Was the "violence" bit always there? When was it added? Was Griff being omniscient? Wha' hah?

Re: What Griff said
 

I think it's new, and an effort by the DARE folks to create a new mission before the old one totally loses credibility, and they all have to go get real jobs. They don't really care what kind of fear they monger. After there's a bazillion studies showing that they have no impact on voilence either, the next target will probably be "making the Internet safe for kids".

omni hoo ha
 

You don't need a weatherman... just someone who has spent a little too much time inside bureaocracies.

hmmmm... nice spelling there.

Anyway, looks like the Catholic schools have officially entered the sick culture of violence that saturates our public schools. tw has it right, as parents we have to be involved enough to know what the atmosphere is like in our kids school and be willing to home school if necessary. We have to know our kids, their friends, and their friends parents. You might be suprised at how little time it takes to get a general vibe about a schools atmosphere that teachers and administrators often miss. If the administration doesn't respond to your concerns you must pull your kid out.

The morality of home schooling
 

Tangent, but hopefully a helpful one:

Is it

a) better to raise your child, if possible, in a home-schooling environment which seem to produce superior results (as well as the obvious benefit from a parental standpoint for safety), or

b) better to, if necessary, sacrifice some portion of your child's intellectual development for the theoretical social advancement, as well as the likely welfare of the community, assuming that your kid will contribute to, rather than detract from, the public learning experience?

The hard-core lefty in me says b, but the proud papa isn't quite ready to endanger his child in any way, possibly ever. Not that I'm volunteering to stay home routinely, either, but...

Re: The morality of home schooling
 

The question misses the point by confusing statistics. If parent is interested enough to make a) work, then parent will also have a superior educated kid in b). A particular kid's education is not reduced by being in a public school environment. The statistics say that the average of kids found in public schools educate themselves less. The hypothesis that explains this: parents who don't care about their kid's education more often dump their kids in public education - lowering the overall average but not lowering the academic achievement of a kid from interested parents.

Homeschoolers and half-truth politicans love the public's inability to understand statistics. The stats do not say that student X will always get a less education in public school. The statistics say that parent who don't don't care, more often dump their kids in public school.

So be sure to dump your kid in public education, along with all those other kids whose parents don't care about them!

About one half of one percent of kids are homeschooled. I would imagine they don't have that much pull on the average.