The
Task Force On
Gangs And Youth Violence
Ken
Dail's Remarks on
Drug Awareness and Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.)*
"It's like a bath. You haven't done a kid any good if you give him a bath in 5th grade and don't teach him how to take another bath the next day and another the next day and another the next day .... you get the idea.
Anheuser Bush gets it. Phillip Morris gets it. Gang leaders get it. Drug dealers get it. Credit card companies get it. McDonald's gets it. If you want someone to use your product/program/idea, all you need to do is hit, hit, hit with a consistent message or image.
D.A.R.E. won't work if we don't follow it up at home, at church, in the community, and - pay attention, this is the big point here - again in the sixth grade. And in the seventh. And eighth. Ninth. Tenth. Eleventh. Twelfth. Workplace. Military. College. Church. Home. Newspapers. TV. Movies. Music. Parents. Grandparents. Older sibs. Police officers. Firemen. Teachers.
If every time our precious youth turn around they see a positive message and see a grown up caring and loving them, then D.A.R.E. has a greater chance of working. On the other hand, If every time they turn around and see gang leaders making the cash, and a Budweiser ad, and a Philly Blunt ball cap, and a movie about the good guy killing all the bad guys, and their parents and other adults bombed out of their minds, or whatever, then D.A.R.E. doesn't have a prayer.
If a city Mayor wants to find a more effective program (to reduce drug abuse among youth), the Mayor needs to look around the city and MAKE a community that supports D.A.R.E.
It's the environment that creates a kid ... not D.A.R.E."
* Reprinted here with Mr. Dail's permission. Mr. Dail is from Michigan.