Health class covers a number of different topics as your kids travel through elementary, middle, and high school. They might start out with learning about how to exercise and eat healthy (a staple time for the ever-changing food pyramid to be introduced). Then they’ll move up to learning about their mental, emotional and social health. This might cover how to make friends and interact with your peers, as well as what to do if you come into a situation that you might think can be considered bullying. While in today’s world, that’s a pretty hefty topic, the most serious talks come as they get older. Unfortunately, most kids start to tune out their health teacher as the years go on. When you’re young, the information is fun, interesting, and most importantly a break from learning on the academic side. Once middle school and high school comes around, kids look at health class as more of a free period rather then a time to learn valuable information about everyday life.
Here’s when topics like growth and development, sexual health, and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use is introduced. It’s not fair to say that all kids don’t pay attention, but a large number look at the substance abuse lessons as a joke. In middle school, it’s pretty hard for kids to believe that they would ever get caught up in something like drugs. Most of them haven’t even heard of the drugs the teacher is presenting to them, unless of course they’ve heard about it in a song or seen it on a TV show. Those corny videos they show are for the most part unrealistic and more kids end up laughing than getting the message it’s trying to preach. In high school, kids think they’re above the whole addiction thing their teacher is trying to drill in their brains. At that age, drinking is “cool” and drugs like marijuana and cocaine are becoming the norm. For some reason, teenagers think they’re invincible, when in reality, they’re one of the most susceptible age groups to substance addiction. It’s hard for them to ever put themselves in the shoes of the teen in the textbook or the video that struggle with recreational use or addiction.
From experience, the videos that make the most impact on these young students are the ones that depict a very average party. Of course there’s drinking going on and a bunch of friends decide they either want to go pick up some food, some more beer, or go to another party. One friend tries to convince the other not to drive because he or she has obviously been drinking. The stubborn, irresponsible, and seemingly invincible friend gets behind the wheel and ends up injuring or killing themselves, their friends, or innocent bystanders. The video usually pans to post-accident scenes where the teenager ends up in a ton of trouble, living with deep regret, and without his or her best friend. This kind of video typically hits home because it’s a very real fear and is one of the most realistic scenes that these teens come in contact with.
Kids should pay closer attention in health class because the takeaways are huge. Some lessons leave a bigger impact than others, but health teachers need to work to make every lesson relatable and current. While they may not see drug use in their future at the young age of 16 or 17, there are many reasons they may turn to them in the near future.
Sometimes identifying the signs of drug use can be hard, especially in teenagers. You expect them to be moody and aloof, so symptoms may go on without you even recognizing them. It’s important that anyone using drugs get help immediately. If the substance begins to take over the user’s life, getting help from a Treatment Center in Los Angeles like Nexus should be your first move. Paying attention in health class isn’t the only thing that will prevent teenage drug use, but it could be a great start.
