Letters to the Editor
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Educators reading this, listen up!
Set aside the LW's questions for the moment. Educators, please notice how much trouble a ham-handed DARE educator caused.
My ex-husband was a serious alcoholic, and I was doing pretty well in getting my first and third graders to understand why we had to leave--without either demonizing their dad or lying to them about anything, and without panicking the kids.
Until the *%!$*!&* elementary school health program shoved some sort of anti-drinking crusade on them, and they both came home from school one day in a serious panic that their dad was going to die and that we had to do something RIGHT AWAY to save him!!!!
It took me months to get them calmed down, and it pushed them into having to deal with family-member-guilt conflicts much earlier than necessary and at a time when they were dealing with the split itself. (Before they understood how dangerous serious alcoholism is, they didn't feel any need to take responsibility what seemed to them at the time to be, for example, their dad's odd sleeping habits.)
As much as I could find out about the program at their school, it was delivered with no sense that any of the children might have these issues active in their homes. This all happened maybe 10 years ago and I'm still angry.
Many of the responders notice how self-righteous 15-year-olds are, and how likely they are to go overboard with sensitive information. For chrissake, educators, know that many of the kids you are talking to have challenging home situations and take that into account!