Scouting, Volume 60, Number 3, March-April 1972 Page: 26
66, [6] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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How to tell if your ki
You learn a lot by listening to
young people. And we've learned
something startling about the drug
scene.
It's not the old "signs-to-look-
for-if-you-think-your-kids-are-on-
drugs" picture. It's a much more
encouraging one: how to tell if
they're not.
From what we've learned, the
indications are that some young
people are less likely than others to
get hooked on drugs. And that
some will probably never even ex-
periment with them.
We've put our new knowledge
behind a new kind of Scout project.
It's called Operation Reach. And
its first goal is giving you some in-
dication of which way your kids
might go.
Here are a few things we've
learned:
Young people have to be ready for
drug experimentation.
The climate of readiness usually
exists long before the experimenta-
tion begins.
From the thousands of boys
and young men we've listened to,
and from dozens of drug experts
whose business it is to find out
what's really behind drug abuse,
we've learned the one big difference
between what turns young people
onto drugs and what keeps them
off: alternatives.
Most young users have few
alternatives. Nearly all young
people who stay away from drugs
have better things in their lives.
Alternatives that give them veal
highs so that they don't need arti-
ficial ones.
The alternatives start with par-
ents they can communicate with.
Alternatives are friends they
can rely on. (40% of the young
men 18 to 22 years old and 30% of
the boys 15 to 17 told us they don't
have friends to rely on).
An alternative is becoming a
part of something beyond them-
selves. It takes some pushing, some
trying, some reaching out. But the
effort is worth it, whether the com-
mitment is to raising funds for ref-
ugee relief, protecting the environ-
ment, defending equal rights or
helping to make an idea like Op-
eration Reach work.
An alternative is feeling se-
cure in their own identity and val-
ues. Enough to be able to reach out
and take a firm, gut level stand for
what they believe in—and a stand
against phony substitutes like
drugs, even when they might have
to give up "friends" to take that
stand.
An alternative is reaching out
enough to help their friends find
the alternatives they have found.
These alternatives are what
Operation Reach is all about.
Our listening and learning have led
to a new way of looking at the drug
problem. If it sounds simple, it is.
As simple as letting young people
reach out and helping them find the
directions.
Operation Reach begins at home.
The young people told us their big-
gest need is to be able to trust their
parents. To feel their parents are
real people with real emotions, like
love and anger and embarrassment
and fear—-and are open enough to
admit to their emotions. The non-
drug users know their parents give
The Rea
How well are you and y<
(Write down the answers to the questions you
want to answer. Then, ask your son to take
the quiz. He'll have to turn some parts of
some questions around. For instance, he
would reword question 7 from "Do you think
he thinks he gets enough allowance?" to "Do
you think you get enough allowance?" Share
your answers with each other. See if what
you think he thinks is really how he feels.
And see how well the two of you are really
connecting.)
1.When was the last time you and he had
a serious discussion? What was it about?
2. When your family sets out to just plain
have fun, what kind of thing do you do? Go
to a movie? Go for a ride? Throw a party?
Go to a club or school or church gathering?
Sit around the living room and make up
games? How do you decide what you all
want to do? Do you plan it, or does it just
happen? Do you think everybody in the fam-
ily enjoys it, or feels obligated to enjoy it?
3. Can you tell, without his telling you, when
he's feeling angry? How? What about when
he's feeling happy? Proud? Guilty? Sad?
Afraid? How do you express those feelings?
Are there any feelings you or the other people
in your family feel embarrassed to express?
Do you think he feels there are? If there are
hidden feelings, do you think you can talk
about them?
4. If you could change his appearance in any
way, what would you do? Cut his hair? Throw
away his tie-dyed jeans? Make him stand
straighter? What do you think he would
change in his appearance? What do you
think he would change in yours?
5. Do you think he feels he's over-disci-
plined? Under-disciplined? Just about right?
How did you establish the discipline pattern
in your house—did you set the rules, did you
and he work them out together, or do the
rules depend on the situation?
6. How do you feel about his friends? Do
you like them or not? Which ones don't you
like, and why? How do'you think he feels
about your friends?
7. Docs your son's allowance depend on
what he does around the house? If so, do you
think he thinks he gets enough allowance?
What do you think he does with his money?
8. How do you organize the work to be done
around the house? Does everybody share it?
Does one person assign it? Do you do it to-
gether? Is it fun? Or something to hurry
through so you can go out and have fun?
9. You've worked very late for about two
weeks in a row. All you can think of tonight
is a good, long sleep. But he reminds you it's
his Little League championship game. Or, you
get a surprise bonus vacation, but it has to
be taken while he's in school. What do you
do? How does your family handle a legiti-
mate conflict of interests? Do you compro-
mise? Does the one with the most desperate
need have it his way? Does the one who gets
his way promise to make up for it in the
future?
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 60, Number 3, March-April 1972, periodical, March 1972; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353588/m1/34/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.