I have a friend/client who is a D.A.R.E. Officer and he has the best stories!
Don’t know what D.A.R.E. is? It stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education – police officer led classroom instruction that teaches kids from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live drug and violence-free lives. D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has been implemented in 75% of our nation’s school districts and 43 countries around the world. My kids went through it; it’s an exceptionally worthwhile program.
It appears the Officers benefit too, since (as Art Linkletter always said) kids DO say the darndest things! My friend says he puts a Question Box in his classroom so kids who are hesitant to speak up or want to remain anonymous can write a question on a piece of paper and place it in the box for him to answer in front of the class. Here are two questions he was asked recently:
1. In the law enforcement world, “MIP” means “minor in possession” – underage possession of alcohol or tobacco. One curious 6th grader asked, ”What is the difference between an MIP and a Mr. Meaner?” (We’ll pause a moment while that one sinks in!)
2. Another 11 year old wrote, “How harmful to the body is it when you smoke TABASCO?”
Cute, eh? He said it’s interesting that while our young people can take a computer apart, program an Ipod and talk in text acronyms that make your head spin, they don’t always grasp the bigger picture. For instance, they don’t always make the connection that “tobacco” is the harmful substance that’s IN cigarettes. It might seem like common knowledge to us adults, so we assume it is for them as well.
Too often we assume kids know more than they do – that they’ll connect the dots automatically because they’re so exposed to TV, cell phones and the Internet. But not always as we can see from the stories above. Sometimes our larger “field of vision” and ability to fill in the gaps from life experience leads us to assume things we shouldn’t about what our kids know. And it’s always an eye opener when we discover one of those knowledge gaps.
And it’s not just limited to 6th graders, by the way. When my eldest son opened his first checking account, he asked me how to fill out his first check. Since he owed me money, I was very happy to oblige him!
So I said, “Wilder (that’s really his name), you fill in the date, then write in the dollar amount in this little box. Then you write out the whole amount like a sentence on that line down there. Then you write my name on the Pay to the Order Of line just above it – and sign your name at the bottom.”
So, he put his head down and went at the task for a few moments. Then he ripped the check out of the pad and handed it to me. On the “Pay to the Order Of” line, he had written the word “MOM”! Because to him – that’s who I am!
Filling out a check seems like second nature to me. But I didn’t realize at the time there are assumptions I make when I fill out a check, but that he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t call me by my full name in conversation, so why would he write it out on a piece of paper?
My friend, the D.A.R.E. Officer, and I had some great chuckles over lunch with these stories and he promises to bring me more! In the meantime, if YOU’VE got any stories on how kids say (or do) the darndest things – send ‘em over or post them in a comment below. We’ll all learn a thing or two in the process!
Writing from 6711 ft. above sea level,
Laura
