A trip to St Louis

Jane and I were invited to sit in on a variety of alcohol, drug and tobacco prevention training sessions. We observed curriculum delivery to kindergarten through grade 9 in both private and public schools. In every session, there was one common thread: The children excitedly recognized and greeted the NCADA trainer as someone who had provided interesting and interactive information to them in the past. They were delighted to have another opportunity with the trainer to review the objectives from their past sessions and continue their skill development with the new ones.
All skills are delivered with clear, simple objectives that can be achieved through every day, practical application. The delivery to a classroom allows each individual student to experience group participation for a long-term period during which there will be multiple interpersonal and group opportunities for exercising positive behaviors with each other.
As an example, I am including pictures drawn by grade 2 students as an exercise of their alcohol prevention class. The task was to draw a warning label for alcohol. So, what you see in the pictures is what they learned in class. They were taught that they are young and their brains are still forming, therefore, alcohol is poison to their growing brains. They were taught if they pick up an adult’s drink, they should immediately “Stop and Drop it”.
I could write on and on about the magic of seeing this young people learn and understand concepts that are not taught as school curriculum; however, I think you will agree, a picture is worth a thousand words!