The School Board in Lynden, Washington, recently terminated the use of a drug education curriculum called “Here’s Looking at You Two.” This action caused quite an uproar in education circles since this course is used in 200 schools in Washington state, where it originated, and is claimed to be in use in some schools in all 50 states.
The Lynden School Board action was taken in response to objections from hundreds of parents. How in the world could parents object to drug education?
That’s easy, if you read the course! It takes stamina to plow through the hundreds of lessons for scores of hours of classroom instruction designed to extend over 13 years, kindergarten through 12th grade. If you do, you will be dismayed and depressed at the lies being taught to children and the psychological manipulation to which they are subjected.
The first lie the course teaches is that everyone has stress, that stress is a normal condition, even for children in the primary grades. This preoccupation with dealing with stress is so gross and redundant that it would easily produce stress where none exists.
Little kindergartners and first graders are asked to discuss such psychological downers as the awful feelings in my stomach, how feelings bottle up inside me, how worry makes it hard to eat or sleep, how miserable I look, and how nothing ever seems to work out for me. They are made to draw pictures of things “I don’t like” and to reveal their inner feelings using a “feely head.”
Second and third graders are led to discussions about 24 stressful situations which make them frightened, worried, angry, or scared. They discuss how they feel awful because their problems are too big, and are told that worries and fears turn into “monsters” that make them upset and afraid.
Fourth graders are again taught, as though it were gospel, that it is normal for all people to have stress. They are required to list reasons for having a bad day, to discuss being anxious, nervous, confused, and angry. They must make up their own “dilemmas” and read them to the class.
The fact is that it is not normal for children to have stress, and it is a lie to teach them that it is. It is also a lie to teach that stress is why children take drugs. The real causes are peer pressure and solicitation by pushers, followed by addiction.
The second wave of falsehoods and psychological manipulation also emerges in the fourth grade. The schoolchildren are taught that everybody takes drugs, and that it is up to the child to make his own decision about the kinds and amounts of drugs he will take.
The child is given a picture of a “drug family tree.” The branches all growing out of the same trunk include coffee, tobacco, Tums, Pepto Bismol, alcohol, sleeping pills, glue, aspirin, cough syrup, marijuana, heroin, LSD, and cocaine. The clear message is that the differences are minor.
The fifth graders discuss “the positive” uses of drugs. The social acceptability of drug use is promoted by presenting such examples as the use of wine at Communion in church and in spaghetti sauce, toasting the bride and groom at a wedding, anesthetics during surgery, drinking tea in honor of the Queen of England, and having hot chocolate at bedtime.
The fifth graders must do such ridiculous assignments as rewriting the fairy tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears so that she samples pills instead of porridge, and writing “Dear Abby” letters voicing complaints such as Mom keeps a whiskey bottle in her closet.
Grades 6 through 12 burden the child with more dreary hours of morbid preoccupation with stress, fear, anxiety, and unpleasant situations. Peer pressure and experimentation are induced by requiring the student to role-play dozens of situations which teach that drugs and alcohol are “recreational.”
The student is forced to reveal details of personal and family information and share them with the entire class. The only persons who are mentioned as drunk, abusive, or driving while intoxicated are parents and clergymen, and the students must pass judgment on their parents’ behavior.
The student-victim of this manipulation of mind and emotions is never told that taking drugs is wrong and illegal, and never told to report a drug pusher to any authority. On the contrary, he is taught that all adults take some kinds of drugs, and it is completely up to the child to choose which drugs he will take and how much.
The course is a fraud on pupils and parents. It is also a cheat on the taxpayer.
The complete course sells for $5,290 per school.
