Smoking

Alcohol

Drugs

Solution

Drugs, Cigarettes and Alcohol

If we sat down to try to devise a system for getting our children hooked on drugs, cigarettes and alcohol we would be hard-pressed to come up with something as effective as the school system.

Schools create a divide between adults and children and this divide makes children vulnerable:

Smoking

Some of the reasons why children smoke are as follows:

• They are away from their parents.
• They are bored.
• Older children smoke.
• Teachers tell them not to smoke.
• Cigarette companies are clever at promoting their brands.
• Its a way of rebelling without really rebelling.
• Getting the cigarettes is exciting because you have to pretend to be sixteen.

My experience of working with young people has taught me that they are very open to learning from older people whom they respect but not from those whom they do not.

Most schoolchildren have very little respect for their teachers. They view the teachers as being mercenaries in the pay of a repressive regime that is depriving them of their basic freedoms.

This simple fact makes teachers the worst possible people to give advice about public health issues such as smoking. The more teachers expound the dangers of smoking and the more that they try to eradicate it from the school premises, the more appealing it becomes.

This explains why smoking is so widespread in schools and how it is that so many young people get hooked on this addictive and lethal drug even though the wider population is now well aware of the horrific consequences that flow from its use.

This is a tragedy that should in itself justify a total reappraisal of the whole education system. The idea that today's teenagers are being drawn into an addictive drug dependency that could cause them to suffer a slow, agonising death in twenty or thirty years time, and that we cannot do anything to stop it, is not credible.

All the evidence derived from home-educating families, and from elsewhere, shows that children treated with respect behave responsibly. Children who have a good relationship with adults are less likely to smoke than their parents because they see for themselves the pitfalls associated with this dangerous habit.

The normal parental reaction to the discovery that a child is smoking is panic, recrimination and then forcing the child to promise to never do it again.

On its own this is totally ineffectual. Parents have to find ways to re-establish a relationship with their children that allows a mutual exchange of confidences and respect.

Alcohol

The logical conclusion to be drawn from this is that children should be introduced to alcohol gradually, by responsible adults, in enjoyable social situations. Given the destructive effects of alcohol on many peoples lives this could, in fact, be considered to be an important aspect of someone's education.

Unfortunately, it is all too common for school children to introduce each other to the use of alcohol which can be quite dangerous. Drinking whole bottles of spirits on the way to school and during break-times, binge drinking at each others houses and stealing alcohol are quite common activities.

Schools have a lot to answer for in this because they are instrumental in setting children and adults against each other. Within the culture of a school it is not acceptable for children to fraternise too much with the teachers, and this carries over to the home: children cannot reveal anything to their parents that their parents may then report to the school or to the parents of their school friends. 

This may be all right when it concerns children being mildly naughty in class and breaking the school rules etc. but the situation has now gone far beyond this. No one knows what is taking place in schools except the children themselves and they don't really know either: they are unable to put what they are experiencing into a wider context because their experience of life is still limited. 

Drugs

The fact that they have to lie and be deceitful in order to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol means that, in their eyes, there is no real difference between these drugs and cannabis, LSD, Ecstasy etc.

They do not realise that by buying and using these drugs they are coming into contact with the world of organised and unregulated crime. The people from whom they buy the drugs seem to be their friends - other children like themselves - and it is not apparent that these young people may have severe problems that have put them under the direct control of committed criminals - people who will disappear if the drugs cause harm or death.

As with everything else that goes on in school, all this takes place under the cover of the code of silence that means that children will not tell the teachers what is going on. Extra lessons about the dangers of drugs  and the threat of punishment for people caught selling or using drugs only reinforce the idea that they should not speak about what is happening.

Schools are often likened to prisons and it is no coincidence that they share the problem of widespread drug abuse and a culture of secrecy. It is bad enough that we have prisons, but what on earth have children done  that they should be confined to comparable institutions? This is a question that must trouble everyone who is concerned for the welfare of young people and for the future of society as a whole.

Once again it must be emphasised that children who are treated with respect are not as vulnerable to drugs as those who are bullied through twelve years of compulsory schooling. History does not show teenagers to be particularly susceptible to drug abuse - this problem is a feature of our times and the lives that we make young people lead.

The Solution

These are not insoluble problems. It simply requires that parents re-establish a good communication with their children and are honest with them.

They also need to be a part of their children's everyday lives.

It is lack of proper information that makes children susceptible to drug taking: children do not want to inflict harm upon themselves and when they realise that this is what drugs do, they scrupulously avoid them. Children can only be given this information when they are treated with respect - you cannot just lecture about the dangers of drugs,  there has to be a two-way conversation in which they can ask questions and receive honest answers.

Parents need to be involved in their child's everyday life because it is not realistic to expect a very young person to be able to withstand the pressure placed upon them by their peers if they are left for long periods of time without proper parental supervision.

Imagining that schools can control drugs problems is simply wishful thinking and it represents a failure on the part of parents to accept responsibility for bringing up their own children. As a parent you have to know what is happening to your child all of the time - until you are confident that they are old enough to look after themselves.

The practical implications of this are that school hours need to be shorter and that there has to be much closer cooperation between parents and the people teaching their children.