 Today there are over 50,000 officers trained and certified to teach
the program, and it has spread globally to over 40 countries.
The D.A.R.E. program came to Lincoln in the mid-1980s, with
Darrell Sisk of the city police being the first D.A.R.E. officer.
In 2001 the torch was passed to then-Officer Ken Greenslate, who
has headed up the program since that time.
Today as chief of police, Greenslate could hand this program off,
but he has chosen to hold on to his head position in the program. He
said the program is something that he enjoys and believes in.
"I see our community children as our community's future. It is
about making better people for tomorrow," he said.
In Lincoln the D.A.R.E. program offers education to students on
the sixth-, seventh- and ninth-grade levels. Greenslate deals mostly
with sixth- and ninth-graders, and Officer Christy Fruge offers
education to seventh-graders.
Greenslate said the lessons taught by D.A.R.E. are a part of the
education process and are something his program can do to help local
teachers.
"Our educators do a wonderful job, and they need all the help and
support they can get," he said.
Although the acronym D.A.R.E. specifies drug abuse resistance,
Greenslate said the program is more about teaching children to make
good choices in life, in a variety of circumstances.
"There are a lot of other things out there beside drugs and
alcohol that are bad choices." Greenslate said. "What the D.A.R.E.
program is about here in Lincoln is about teaching kids to make
better choices. We try to help kids learn about decision-making and
consequences.
"First, I teach about what choices are and the results of those
choices, which are the consequences. Consequences can be good or
bad, depending on if the choice was good or bad."
Greenslate said he uses the slogan "Happiness is a good choice"
as part of the teaching.
The next part of the lesson is about self-esteem. Greenslate
explained that choices, consequences and self-esteem feed one
another is a circular motion.
"If you make good choices, you'll be happier because you have
happier consequences; then you feel better about yourself, and it
will be easier for you to make more good choices," he said.
Greenslate said another part of the lesson addresses influences,
and he talks to the kids about the influential people in their lives
and the choices they have with those people.
For the first 10 years of a child's life, a child's greatest
influence comes from adults. Greenslate refers to these as the
family influences, but he qualified that it isn't just parents, it
is all the adults who have some control over a child. Whether it be
parents, grandparents, teachers or sitters, these are the people who
make up the family influences.
By the time a youngster reaches sixth grade, the influences start
to change. Young people begin to react more to their friends and
outside influences and less to the adults in their lives.
Greenslate said if you look at it as a scale, spending time with
mom and dad outweighs spending time with friends in the early years.
As kids reach the early teen years, it starts to even out and they
want to spend more and more time with friends. As they reach the
latter part of their teen years, time with friends outweighs time
with family. It is then that friends have the greatest influence in
the choices a kid makes.
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Another influence that comes into play is media. Greenslate
explained that television and other entertainment sources are far
more graphic, explicit and shocking today than they were 25 or 30
years ago.
"Kids have seen more at the age of 11 than we saw at the age of
21," he said.
Greenslate said his concern is that when they are that young,
kids will become desensitized to violence and tragedy and will be
less caring when and if they should ever see something similar in
real life.
He also noted that with so much exposure at a young age, kids
aren't really mature enough to understand that what is on television
is for entertainment and not meant to serve as a real example of
what life is about and how they should behave.
Moving on in the influences in a kid's life, Greenslate explained
that by early adulthood, the influence shifts once again. As adults,
these same kids are more self-reliant, and what they learned as
children will influence who they are as adults.
If they have been taught good moral values, have learned to make
good choices and enjoy the good consequences, then they will be
happy, productive adults.
As adults, the torch is then passed as they become parents; they
are the ones who will then influence their young children.
In the public schools, there are a wide variety of lifestyles
reflected in our youth. Greenslate said the D.AR.E. program
reinforces the good values that are taught by many parents, and it
serves to help overrule the bad influences that are being seen in
other households.
Greenslate also noted that he would much rather work with these
children now to help them make good decisions than have to deal with
them as adults who have made bad ones.
In addition to classroom time, D.A.R.E. offers a number of
activities that are safe and fun for area youth. Greenslate
explained that during those activities, there is no formal lesson,
but rather a very subtle one, which is that "you can find fun things
to do that don't involve drugs and alcohol."
___
In Part 2 of this interview with Chief Greenslate, he will talk
about the activities D.A.R.E. sponsors, the other ways they support
local youth and where they get the money to do it all.
[By NILA SMITH]
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