I know this will vary between countries but I'm interested to hear your thoughts on education surrounding addiction. Growing up in New Zealand we had some education regarding drugs and addiction. The teachers supplied us with some information about the chemicals in various drugs, and a small amount of information about the effects these can have. They did not delve (at least in my schools) into addiction itself or treatment. I remember being quite confused when they explained that there were hundreds of chemicals in cigarettes, but only one chemical in marijuana. I think their message was a little bit lost on me because I didn't understand why the 'more dangerous' (i.e. 'it had more chemicals in it') one was legal. That is about all I remember relating to drug/addiction education at school. I feel like it would have been helpful to have more information regarding what addiction is and the treatment process. More information around these topics would help young people who have family members struggling with addiction, as well as if any of their friends have similar problems.
I live in South America and we definitely lack a lot on education. Most teacher touch the subject once or twice but never really get into it or how it affect the body. We did have a lot of sexual education, so I feel like sexual education should be complemented with education about substance abuse and all kinds of addictions.
The fact that almost all over the world we have serious addiction problems means that drug education is failing either because schools have failed to warn students about the dangers that come with doing drugs or the education itself is ineffective because there isn't enough of it. I think the latter is true. There isn't enough drugs education in schools.
It’s a bit strange but true, in school we learn a lot but so less about drugs, how to not fall in its trap…Maybe because ‘drug addiction’ is a something prohibited and not good to be discussed very often to make children or teens even more curious. I think that in every school should exist a special subject, which might be: How to stay sober! Many teens get into drugs because they are very curious to understand its effects, as it is something prohibited! If it becomes a social discussion, than everyone would be more careful.
That's an excellent point! When you compare how different schooling is the world over with the prevalence of addiction in every society it does really show how widespread the problem is.
I think there is in the U.S., but it's the wrong kind. A bunch is dumped on kids in 5th grade during DARE and then not a ton of focus is given to it beyond brief mentions in health class. Anymore, kids are already overexposed and/or using by 5th grade! The ones who aren't often get snared in during middle school, when there is more focus on abstinence sex education than drugs during health classes. It needs to be a continually taught and addressed thing, not dumped on kids then addressed here and there later on.
I couldn't agree more with you. Education is actually a major global problem, not just drug education and awareness programs, but regular education that make students go way too beyond the scholar level they should go. People of my generation learned at elementary school things that the next generation learned until reach secondary/high school, and the following generation did it until college, and actual generation will never learn it if not by their own self-education on the different subjects school should teach, but not longer. Actually where drug prevention is part of an educational system, kids are bombarded with information on the topic, but not a sensitive talk that explains and motivates them to stay away from falling into addiction. Education is actually kind of chimera, or the shadow of what, once upon a time, it was.
Well, I am sure things have changed in school since I was a time or a pre teen, but back then all the drug education they offered was: don't do drugs, drugs are bad. I once heard they took them to some sort of play with actors talking about drugs using the language they think kids at that age use (very rude and sexual, by the way). That's it. I didn't go there because we decided to skip school that day.