Drugs and my first grader
I smoke an occasional cigar and I drink alcohol. My children witness these events, generally with only passing interest. So I was surprised when my wife said that our first grader informed her that he intended to smoke cigars, cigarettes and pot when he grew up. "Pot?" she asked him. "What do you think pot is?" she pushed. He answered that it is like cigars and cigarettes.
After a conversation that I didn't expect to be needed with a seven-year old, we got to his homework assignment: An essay on the difference between prescription drugs and illegal drugs. "Why is this your homework," I asked. "We are studying drugs."
I refused to allow a response to the essay, instead writing a note to his teacher, explaining that I didn't think this was an appropriate topic for a first grader. She called later in the week, assuring me that the subject was 1) required by the State of Ohio; 2) completed for her class; and 3) understandably difficult.
Now let me explain what my first grader took from these required lessons: First, that pot - I assume because it is smoked and a "drug" just like nicotine - is like cigarettes and cigars. Second, that alcohol is also a drug. These are both true statements. The problem is that they offer no additional deterrent for a first grader. Instead, in what I am sure is some education bureaucrat's do-gooder mind, they teach these children that nicotine and alcohol are also drugs so that they can go home and lecture mommy and daddy.
The actual result, I submit, is a norming of drug use, something that our do-gooder never conceived. If pot is like a cigar, and daddy enjoys a cigar, what is so wrong with enjoying pot? If alcohol is a drug and mommy and daddy enjoy alcohol while grilling steaks, what is so wrong with drugs.
In the meantime, math and science suffer, dropout rates increase and test scores decrease. Welcome to the education bureaucracy.
After a conversation that I didn't expect to be needed with a seven-year old, we got to his homework assignment: An essay on the difference between prescription drugs and illegal drugs. "Why is this your homework," I asked. "We are studying drugs."
I refused to allow a response to the essay, instead writing a note to his teacher, explaining that I didn't think this was an appropriate topic for a first grader. She called later in the week, assuring me that the subject was 1) required by the State of Ohio; 2) completed for her class; and 3) understandably difficult.
Now let me explain what my first grader took from these required lessons: First, that pot - I assume because it is smoked and a "drug" just like nicotine - is like cigarettes and cigars. Second, that alcohol is also a drug. These are both true statements. The problem is that they offer no additional deterrent for a first grader. Instead, in what I am sure is some education bureaucrat's do-gooder mind, they teach these children that nicotine and alcohol are also drugs so that they can go home and lecture mommy and daddy.
The actual result, I submit, is a norming of drug use, something that our do-gooder never conceived. If pot is like a cigar, and daddy enjoys a cigar, what is so wrong with enjoying pot? If alcohol is a drug and mommy and daddy enjoy alcohol while grilling steaks, what is so wrong with drugs.
In the meantime, math and science suffer, dropout rates increase and test scores decrease. Welcome to the education bureaucracy.
Thats horrible...Government schools at their finest...
next: Government controlling our carbon footprint. I guess their going to tell us how much CO2 we can exhale with that one...
Also, Government healthcare....Yipee!!!!
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That's not far off. There was (or is) a proposal in California to require radio receivers and transmitters on all home thermostats, to allow the state monitor and control everyone's room temperatures. They want to control the very air we breathe.
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Jonah Goldberg said last night at Denison University that his five-year-old daughter was threatening to turn him in for not recycling.
The smiley-faced fascists were getting to her.
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I understand the hesitancy to teach alcohol education at an early age but with 27% of 8th graders already binge drinking it is clear that children are not aware of the ramifications of drug and alcohol abuse. Rather than sitting at home feeling imposed upon by your first grader, why not take an interest in what they are learning? Why not highlight the strengths of being an adult and making good choices like not drinking to excess and not driving drunk. Certainly a first grader will have many questions regardless of what is being taught at school, embrace their inquiries and teach them your values. The fact is it is uncomfortable for us as adults to discuss these things with our children. I think it is naive to think that the teaching of alcohol and drugs is what is leading children to making connections between alcohol, cigars and drugs. Your child comes to you with this connection and feels comfortable talking with you but will quickly learn not to by the walls you put up. You are angry at their questions and comments they will learn it is something they don't talk about with you but that won't stop them from thinking, it just means that their misconceptions will continue. As for math and science there are many ways to incorporate those subjects into social skills lessons. How about learning about the human body? How alcohol enters the body and the effects of alcohol? All science. Math- what is the difference between a shot of whiskey, a glass of wine and a bottle of beer? Different volume but the same alcohol content. Math. I realize that drinking and smoking is common among households but teaching the dangers of these common drugs will help children make good choices about their body and one good choice can lead to other good choices. You are worried that math and science go out the door but with more children drinking and smoking at a younger age, math and science will be affected in a whole different way. I hope that you get invovled when your school offers lessons such as these, your interest and openess is critical to your child's understanding and willingness to open up with such a serious subject. Talk about it now so they come to you later.
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Thanks, Maria. My overarching concern with our educational system rests within the alcohol, drugs and tobacco example. Namely, the schools have become so busy teaching alcohol, tobacco and drug education to children (poorly, I might add), that the institution neglects the basics. And it isn't the schools' fault because many of the dangerously counterproduct social education schemes that they have to carry out are mandated by the state or federal government.
You suggestions are valuable in the home. In the school, I ask that a solid core curriculum of English (grammar, writing and literature), mathematics, science, history, and science be taught. The science or math of alcohol absorption are probably placing the cart before the horse. A more recent example of the educational asides being taught at the expense of basics is my 15-year-old's "food and fitness" class (which has been preserved while many foreign language and advanced courses have suffered under budget cuts) that spends absolutely no time on food and fitness. The time is spend on psychobabble Dr. Phil-like goofiness. As my daughter says "we don't have enough money for each child to have a history book, but we have the money for me to get in touch with my feelings." Sorry, Maria. You and I will probably disagree on this one.
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