Had a Great Time in School Today!

Posted by Tony Bylsma on February 19, 2010 under Drug Abuse Prevention Education | Be the First to Comment

This was really a terrific day for drug education and drug abuse prevention.  At least it was in the little Catholic school I visited this morning in downtown Los Angeles. I have been to this parochial school every year, at least once since 2003 and I have been able to watch the students as they grow older.

First, the obvious… they’re beautiful children and the people who run the school are completely aware of that. The uniforms they wear are nicely clean and pressed, (the sisters ensure this is the case!), and even though it is not an affluent area, the condition of the school and grounds shows close attention to detail and a love of growing things.

Second, even though we’re in a tough economy, there is a very high retention rate here. Most of the students I see every year and I’m pleased to see them still attending when I return. It isn’t easy to pay for private schools, I know. My own children were in private schools for only about half of their elementary and upper school years, I couldn’t always pay the tuition. But I see these kids coming back year after year. It speaks well of the facility.

What I like the best, though, is this. They have actually learned through the years and are not only retaining the information, but they still remember specifics of lessons they learned many years ago!

We start with them in third grade with talks about tobacco. When I was speaking to the eighth grade students today I was very pleased to find they still recall the lessons on smoking from five years ago and were telling me what they’d learned back in those first lectures!

We spent much of our class time today going over things they could still use from talks over the years. I decided that it would be good to have them tell me how they could use in the future what they’ve learned. Many of them will be attending public school for the first time next year and in South Central Los Angeles, that means a really different environment from what they know.

I was gratified to hear responses of not just, “I’ll stay off drugs”, but also, “I’ll teach the kids I meet what I know”. “I’ll keep my friends away from drugs too.”

I felt good knowing that I will see many of these students in various high schools in the future and they will come up to me and let me know that we have a history, that they were in class with me all those years and that they are still drug free.