Substance Abuse

So for the last week or so, I've been "teaching" this substance abuse curriculum that I didn't write.  Laura, my hard-hearted and often forgetful cooperating teacher, forgot to do it earlier this year, and since the school received grant money in exchange for agreeing to do it, I had to do it. 

The program itself is everything that I hate about the "corporatization" of the classroom.  First and perhaps foremost is the pre-packaged, "teacher-proof" curriculum.  The manual comes with these ridiculously specific instructions; if I actually followed them, I would be standing at the front of the room merely reading out of the manual for much of the class time.  It also comes with a checklists of "materials to photocopy" at the beginning of each lesson (there are eight lessons), but of course the manual itself says on every page: "this is copyrighted material; do not photocopy." 

Then there's the tone of the materials themselves--cutesy and condescending.  The handouts for the kids all have this ridiculous clip-art on it; and then there are materials that are supposed to be sent home (for the "home-team," the term the program uses for the student's family.  Some of the information on these materials is probably worthwhile, but I suspect that many parents would catch a quick whiff of the condescension and immediately stop reading.  I hand the paper to my students every day, as I am sort of required to do, and I haven't bad-mouthed or under-cut it so far, but most of the "home-team" materials end up in the recycle bin outside of my classroom (at least they're recycling).

There is one redeeming part of the program.  The curriculum revolves around these audio recordings of four seventh graders who all face different alcohol abuse related dilemmas.  And though the message of these recording is pretty obvious, I was actually impressed by the authenticity of the stories the kids told and the way they talk about their lives and experiences.

Like the other day one of the "virtual classmates" (right? like who is going to fall for that?) was worried that if she drank at a party people would think "all kinds of things about her."  So we ended up having this conversation about the different stereotypes we have for different genders as they relate to alcohol.  And one male student brought up the word "slut" and how people think that girls who drink are "sluts".  And so then we started talking about the word "slut" and that kind of led into a discussion about gender-roles and double-standards; and the kids were really engaged, and I was really interested in what they had to say about the pressures they feel as young men and women.

And today we were looking at different advertisements for alcohol, examining the ways that ads prey on gendered-insecurities, and they were so excited about the conversation that a few of them were literally falling out of their seats (I had to squash that a little), and then they started asking questions about how addiction works on the brain and what "alcohol withdrawal" is and what "alcoholism" is.  And there were moments when the class seemed on the edge of falling out of control, but it was a loss of control (on their part) due to a deep immersion in the subject.

I had a few moments today when I actually stopped class and said: "it's moments like this when I just have to stop and acknowledge how much I love my job."

And so I am partially grateful to the patronizing corporation that made the mediocre materials which allowed me to have some really interesting and engaging conversations with my seventh graders for the last few days.