“If you don’t have a good sense of self-esteem, you let other people make decisions for you,” said Officer Karen Koch of the Oak Forest Police Department’s DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.
Coordinated by the Illinois State Police and taught by local police departments, DARE educates children in the middle grades on personal safety and the dangers of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and gangs.
Through lectures, literature, films, skits and role-playing, students learn about peer pressure, the consequences of their actions, resistance techniques and stress management.
“We teach deep breathing techniques,” said DARE Officer John Kasper of the Palos Heights Police Department. “Sports figures use it all the time. If you watch a basketball player at the free throw line, he takes a deep breath and lets it out before he shoots.”
Officers also use a balloon to demonstrate the effects of self-esteem, inflating it with positive messages and deflating it with each negative one. “We teach the kids to see how valuable they all are and the effects they have on each other,” Koch said.
Alsip Elementary School District 126 has incorporated the “Taking Care of Me” program into its curriculum for grades 1 through 8. Students explore topics that include teen pregnancy, train safety, teen suicide, sexual exploitations, self-worth, divorce and blended families.
