拒绝毒品课程

Susan著 小哭译

过去的几个月里，我上了一门叫做“D.A.R.E”的课程。“D.A.R.E.”是“拒绝毒品的教育”的首字母缩写。如其字面意义，这门课的目的是教育我这么大的年青人，有关毒品可能会被如何滥用以及如何对这事儿说“不”的。 “D.A.R.E.”课由C 警官上，他时常到我们学校和学生们在一起。C 真的是一个很不错的人。他与###学区的学生们合作了很久。除去我和几个新搬来的学生，多数人是从他们上小学时起就认识了C 警官。说每一个人都喜欢C 应该不算过份，他是整个学校中最受欢迎的成年人之一。

可能是因为这个原因，每个人都很喜欢D.A.R.E.课。通常，我不会期待一组初中生会喜欢上一门教他们一些象“如何对某人说不”或“为什么大麻对你不好”这样的课程。从我过去的经验来看，教授生活技能的课程不会是最受欢迎的一类。然而，我们班的同学们却在第一次听说C 警官将在今年来教D.A.R.E.课时欣喜若狂！由于他们对我本以为会是很枯燥的一门课程的奇怪反应，激起了我想去看看D.A.R.E.都在讲什么的兴趣。

终于等来了上课的这一天。在一个星期四的第五小节，我们上了第一次课。通常第五小节是用来上ELA课程的，但是学区认为D.A.R.E.课是如此地重要，决定让C 警官每周四的ELA时间过来教D.A.R.E.。这门课不是只有我们班自己上，是所有八年级的学生一起上。事实证明，D.A.R.E.课真的比我想象的要好多了（我没有想过它会有多么地糟，但是我也没有期望过它会有多么地好）。C 警官真的是一个了不起的人。他有幽默感，平等地对待所教的学生，这一点几乎没有几个成年人能够成功地做到。于是我也相当地喜欢D.A.R.E.课了。

好了，关于C 说得够多的了。你可能更想知道我们实际上在课堂上干了什么吧。第一天，我们做了三个手工：名字标牌、作业套装和课堂套装。名字标牌就是：在一个名字卡上写上我们的名字，做成标牌，以便C 警官知道管我们叫什么。作业套装很鲜艳，在一个像是塑料一样的纸上已经整齐地打印好了内容。套装其实很小，只有丁丁点的地方填写我们不得不填写的东西。上面的问题是那些能够让我们思考如何将我们在课堂上学到的东西应用在生活中的问题。其中的一个问题是“我们今天在课堂上讨论了回绝不好的请求这事儿。请写下五个你曾经在哪儿见证过的某人拒绝某事的情形。他们是属于挑衅性的、冷漠性的还是坚决的？”我喜欢这个作业套装，因为它能够帮我弄清楚如何把学到的东西应用到生活中。

课堂套装主要是图片和照片以及C 警官所教东西的解释性文字。每一年，C 警官都来教D.A.R.E.课程，每一年的主题都不相同。今年，D.A.R.E.主要的关注点可以用另一组首字母缩写“R.E.A.L.”来表示。“R.E.A.L.”表示“拒绝、解释、回避、离开”。那些就是C 警官这几个月来反复教授我们的四个策略。我发现它们绝大多数都是常识性的知识：“如果一个人供给你毒品而你并不想要，拒绝。如果这个人之后继续提供给你毒品，你应该解释为什么拒绝。如果这样还不行，离开这个环境。甚至还有一些更好的办法：要在下次避免那种环境，这样你就用不着不得不去处理那些令人棘手的麻烦了。”这很简单。然而即使那是常识，每一个人都知道常识正是青少年所缺乏的并且需要的。D.A.R.E.是非常有用的课，它让我对拒绝毒品时要说什么有所准备。如果不是因为D.A.R.E.课，我可能直到那一天来临时，都不曾思考过到时候要去说什么。

除了R.E.A.L.，我们在D.A.R.E.课上学会的另一件重要的事情是关于毒品的一些事实。C 警官教给我们关于迷幻药的知识，说它可能会以一种看起来象糖一样的药丸的样子出现。他教我们怎么样去区分它们，告诉我们那些小药丸可能带来的那些有害的作用。那种被设计成让人们感觉“兴奋”的毒品，听起来就像我曾经对毒品的预料一样，真的很可怕。他也教我们关于大麻和烟草的知识，还有一点关于酒精的知识。他说那些是“入门毒品”，因为人们通常从这里开始，然后才进入到越来越刺激的如可卡因或甲安菲他明等毒品。这些确凿的信息最令人兴奋。我了解了以前一点都不懂的关于非法毒品的知识。C 给我们看现实生活中的实例。他给我们看隐蔽摄像头拍摄的毒品交易的纪实片段，以及接下来警察是怎么来的并且逮捕了毒贩子。他甚至带来了一个真正的大麻烟管，我们都闻了，味道很糟糕。

几个月后，D.A.R.E.课进行了期末考试。那不是一种真正的考试，更象是一个小测验。考得真的很简单，我想每个人都通过了。然后，就在一天早晨，我们举行了毕业典礼，是D.A.R.E.课的毕业典礼，不是八年级的毕业典礼。我曾以为这个典礼会象是一个正式的典礼，我们每一个人都会被叫到台上领取一个证书什么的。然而，其实一点也不令人激动。

典礼的第一部分是一个展览，关于警察局如何使用警狗。H村没有一个警犬部，但是隔壁镇有，所以就把他们的警犬（他们也只有一只）和训练员，一个警官，都送到了我们学校，给我们示范了一下。警犬的训练员给我们演示警犬是如何找到毒品的（他为此在讲台上藏了一丁丁点），还有警犬是如何服从指令的。土土（我不知道那是否是他的名字，反正我知道是T开头的）这两点都做得非常地好。我从来没有见过一只训练得更好的狗。除了圆满地完成了任务，土土也非常地可爱！这是一只品种高贵的德国牧羊犬。

第二部分，也典礼的最后部分，是关于三个孩子的令人伤心的故事。他们一个17岁，一个18岁，一个即将19岁（最后这个获得了我们年级响亮的欢呼，我们都预祝他有一个快乐的生日）。他们都曾是毒品上瘾者，现在都在康复期。他们给我们讲了自己的故事，还回答了我们的一些提问。我注意到，他们三个都来自于真的很艰苦和贫穷的社区。很明显在他们的成长过程中没有受到如我们一样的毒品教育。这件事真的让我意识到我是多么地幸运，D.A.R.E.课是多么地重要！如果他们年少时也曾有机会如我们一样地上过D.A.R.E.课，他们可能就不会是今天这个样子了。

对这三个客人的提问环节过后，毕业典礼就结束了。结束了！就那样。我们被告知ELA老师会在下次课时给我们发证书。虽然这个典礼不是我所期待的那样，但这样其实更好。听警犬训练员和三个孩子对我们所说的话，比一个跟着一个上台领证书更有趣儿。每一个人，包括我自己，都觉得其中一个男孩子的故事非常地有趣儿。他不断地不自觉地说脏话，因为那已经成为了他的一个习惯。接着他就不断地为此道歉，因为说脏话很不好嘛，特别是在学校里。我想这三个孩子能够和我们分享自己的故事，真的很勇敢，他们表现得很棒！

总的来说，我认为D.A.R.E.课很成功。它教了我许多东西，我为自己能够拥有这样的课程很感恩。我想感谢C 警官和所有那些让D.A.R.E.课程能够开课的人们。对我来说，这门课是一次非常有趣的体验。

【小哭介绍背景】我才译完第一稿就忍不住写这个背景介绍了。模糊地记得两个月前读完小文的感觉还是不错的，可是很快这小文的内容就从我的脑子里被挤出去了。今天边读边译边感动着，以至于译到最后几段，眼泪就流出来了。也许是和我上周出了一次小小的车祸有关，忍不住去想人生的目标和方向到底在哪里。一味地努力和向上，如何才能避免忽视了精神层面的追求？如何才能避免忘记了感恩于每一天一家人都能够平安和睦地生活在一起？

毒品，还有性侵害，我想很多妈妈都会在女儿进入青春期后不止一次地思考并感觉无助吧？什么事情会发生，我们根本不能控制，无论如何地努力，也没有办法能够保证孩子不出现意外。这就如你开车一样，就算你一切都好，可是也不能避免被违规的车辆撞上啊！车在路上，祸不由已；人在江湖，身不由已。孩子们在学校，我们能够控制多少，甚至能了解多少呢？初来小村时，就有人提醒我，别看这是好学区，可是高中生中毒品的问题，与学区好坏没有多少关系，甚至，越是有钱的学区，学生们越有钱买毒品，毒品问题越严重。OMG，毒品，真的是让人觉得无助。这是社会问题，我们只能做自己的这一份，结局根本就不在自己的手里。一想以往看过的那些报导，那些被坏人盯上的人，被偷偷下药和打针然后令其上瘾的故事，就觉得毒品这个东西，真让人无助。

Susan在上这门课的过程中，经常告诉我课上有了什么收获，看到、听到、闻到了什么了，非常地兴奋。她对毕业典礼相当地期待，一直拖着不写这门课的介绍，理由就是一定要把毕业典礼也写进来。但是最后的典礼却让她有着不少的失望，好在她动手写文章时，已经从那种失望的情绪中走了出来，对毕业典礼的评价更为成熟理性。

当我知道她有机会闻过大麻后，感觉相当地好！不给她机会闻，也许有一天她就会从好奇心开始，走进一段谁也无法预计的旅程。给她机会闻？我们也没有那个能力啊！所以，如她在文尾的感慨，好学区还是好啊，至少能够给孩子们开设D.A.R.E.这样的一门课。她对那三个孩子有着深深的同情，也对自己拥有的学习机会有着强烈的感恩。这个社会是如此地不平衡，不只是中国，在美国也一样。我们小百姓，真的有几人会愿意住进差学区，志在帮助那些更弱的人们呢？

其实我对性侵犯这一块的教育也挺关注的，可是没听Susan讲过很多。前几天我想认真地和她谈谈，结果她却说：妈妈，现在社会的信息渠道是如此之多，你不讲，我也了解，你不用给我讲了，我都知道。嗯，我都不知道说什么好了。她那么喜欢阅读，我相信她的好奇心一定会让她读过这类东西了。最后，我只是说：不论发生什么，千万别因为任何人的威胁不告诉妈妈，不论发生什么，妈妈永远是你的朋友，妈妈永远不会放弃你。

可是这事儿在我眼里还是没有真正解决好，特别是翻译完这篇文章后，我又把这个话题重新提起。问Susan有关性侵犯的信息具体是从哪里获得的，她说是从平时阅读的一些小说中了解的。我再问学校到底有没有开过这门课。健康课上讲的是生理卫生、科学常识，可我问的是生活常识，如D.A.R.E.课这种的，教会学生在遇到问题要如何处理这类。我希望孩子知道出现麻烦后如何冷静地应对。于是Susan说没学过，但是，最有可能的是那是七年级D.A.R.E.课的主题。我说那你这种后转来的学生怎么办呢？我要尽快地跟学校和警察局联系，要求给你这种插班生补这种课的机会，因为这太重要了。Suasn爸于是说，去吧去吧，赶紧去找吧。嗯，我会的，这门课是如此地重要，而我自己又是如此地无力教授，我必须也只能去寻求社区的力量。美国房地产业不是有句口号“养孩子不仅仅是一个家庭的事情，更是一个社区的事情吗”？我会认真地执行这一理念的。

附上英文原文：

D.A.R.E.

For the past few months, I took a class called “D.A.R.E.”. “D.A.R.E.” is an acronym for “Drug Abuse Resistance Education”. Like the name says, the purpose of the class was to educate young people like me and my classmates about how drugs can be abused are and how to say “no” to them. D.A.R.E. classes were taught by Officer C, a police officer who often wosrk with the students at my school. Officer C’s a really nice guy. He has been working with District ### students for a very long time. Most students, with the exception of myself and a few others who just moved here, have known Officer C since they were in elementary school. It wouldn’t be an overstatment to say that everybody likes him. He’s one of the most popular adults in the whole school.

It was probably for this reason that everybody enjoyed D.A.R.E. classes. Usually, I would not have expected a group of middle-school students to enjoy a class that teaches stuff like “How to say no to someone” or “Why marijuana is bad for you”. From my past experiences, classes that teach about life skills aren’t the most popular ones. However, when my class first heard that Officer C was going to come and teach D.A.R.E. this year, they were ecstatic! Because of this strange response to what I had thought would be a boring class, I was very interested to see what D.A.R.E. was all about.

The day finally came. The first class was on a Thursday, during 5^th period. 5^th period would normally be part of ELA class, but the school district consider D.A.R.E. just as important, so it was decided that Officer C would come to teach D.A.R.E. every Thursday during ELA. It wasn’t just our class, but all the classes in 8^th grade. It turned out that D.A.R.E. lessons were actually better than I had thought (I didn’t think it would be really bad, but I didn’t expect it to be very good either). Officer C really is a great guy. He has a sense of humor, and he treats his students like equals, a feat that few adults have managed to achieve. I ended up enjoying D.A.R.E. classes quite a lot.

Anyway, enough about C. You all probably want to know more about what we actually did in class. On the first day, we were handed three items: a name tag, a homework packet, and a class packet. The nametag was just that: a name tag to write our names on so Officer C would know what to call us. The homework packet was really colorful and neatly printed on a plastic-like paper. It was really small, with only few spaces we had to fill in. The questions were questions that made us think about how we can apply what we learned in class to our life. One of them was “We talked about refusing bad requests in class today. Write down five situations where you have witness someone refusing something. Were they aggressive, passive, or assertive?”. I liked the homeowork packet, because it helped me figure out how I could use what I’ve learned in my life.

The class packet was mostly pictures and photos and words explaining what Officer C taught us. Every year, Officer C comes in to teach D.A.R.E. classes, and every year, the main idea is different. This year, the major focus for D.A.R.E. could be found in another acronym: R.E.A.L. “R.E.A.L.” stands for “Refuse, Explain, Avoid, Leave”. Those were the four strategies Officer C drilled into us for months. I found that most of it was common sense: “If a person if offering you drugs and you don’t want it, refuse. If the person is still offering you drugs after that, you should explain why you refused. If that still doesn't work, leave the situation. Here’s something ever better: avoid that kind of situaion next time so you won’t have to go through all that awkward process.” It was simple. However even though it was common sense, everybody knows that common-sense is something teenagers lack and need. D.A.R.E. was very helpful, and it prepared me for what to say to refuse drugs. If not for D.A.R.E., I would most likely never think about what I would actually say until the day comes.

Aside from R.E.A.L., another important thing we learned in D.A.R.E. was facts about drugs. Officer C taught us about ecstacy, and about how it can come in little pills that can look like candy. He taught us how to identify them, and told us about the harmful effects those little pills can have. It sounded really horrible, just like what I had expected from a drug that was designed to make people feel “high”. He also taught us about marijuana and tobaco, and a little about alcohol. Those are the “gateway drugs”, he said, because people usually start with them, and then work their way up to more and more potent drugs like cocaine or meth. The factual information part was the most interesting. I understood so much more about illegal drugs that I had no idea of before. C showed us real-life examples. He showed us real footage filmed by a hidden camera about a drug deal, about then showd how the police came and arrested the drug dealers. He even brought in an actual marijuana pipe, and we smelled it. It smelled awful.

After a few months of D.A.R.E. lessons, we had a final test. It wasn’t really a test really, more like a quiz. It was really easy, and I think everyone passed it. Then, just this morning, we had our graduations. D.A.R.E. graduations, not 8^th grade graduations. I had envisioned it to be like a formal graduation, with each of us getting called to the stage to be presented a certificate or something. However, it turned out to be a lot less dramatic.

The first part of the “graduation” was a presentation on how dogs are used in police departments. Hinsdale does not have a canine department, but the neighboring town does, so they sent their dog (they only have one) and its owner, the police officer, to our school, and they gave us a demonstration. The police officer who trained the dog showed us how it can find drugs (he hid a tiny bit on the stage for this) and how it can follow orders. Toto (I don’t know if that’s his name, I know it begins with a T) could do both very well. I’ve never seen a better trained dog. And to top it off, he’s really cute! A magnificent breed of German Shephard.

The second, and sadly final, part of the “graduation” was about three kids. One was 17 years old, one was 18, and one was going to turn 19 soon (this last one got a loud cheer from our whole grade and we all wished him a happy early bithday). They were all drug addicts who are now currently in rehab. They told us their story and answered some questions for us. I noticed that all three of them were from really rough and poor neighborhoods. They obviously didn’t grow up with the sort of drug education like we were receiving then. That really made me realize how lucky I am, and how important D.A.R.E. is. If they had the chance to take D.A.R.E. lessons like us when they were young, they probably wouldn’t have been there today.

After some Q and A with the three guests, the graduation was over. Over! Just like that. We were told that our ELA teachers would give us our certificates next time we see them. Although I didn’t get what I had expected, I think what I got was better. Hearing from the dog trainer and from the three kids was way more interesting than going up one by one to receive a certificate. Everyone, including myself, had a lot of fun hearing one of the boys’ story. He kept on swearing by accident, because it has become a habit for him, and he kept on appologizing for it, since swearing is bad, especially in school. I think the three boys did great, and they were really brave sharing their story with us.

All in all, I believe D.A.R.E. was a success. It taught me a lot, and I am very grateful for having this class. I want to thank Officer C and all those that made D.A.R.E. possible. It has been a very interesting experience for me.