Betty Despenza-Green, principal at Chicago Vocational High School in Chicago, describes an initiative at her school in which teachers learn how to include prevention in their daily curriculum. Excerpted from the video series Pathways to Prevention, videotape #2, The Chicago Vocational and Benito Juarez Stories (Chicago Public Schools and the Midwest Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities, 1994).
"In fact, what we're doing at CBS, we're strongly encouraging our entire staff to go through a six week training program, retraining, where they're looking at, for one thing, incorporating substance abuse kinds of activities deterrent in the curriculum, instead of making it a pull out system, involve it in your day to day strategies, be able to recognize when a child is engaged or involved in something else, something that's negative to his learning."
This Critical Issue was researched and written by Emanuel Hurwitz, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago; Julius Menacker, Ed.D, Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago; and Ward Weldon, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago. Additional comments were provided by Carol Sullivan, a Minneapolis-based violence prevention consultant.
Date posted: 1996