From the Classroom to the Airwaves

When I taught drugs and alcohol this quarter, to me it was not enough for the students to know that drugs and alcohol are bad. To truly be able to say “no” to drugs, students must be able to stand up to peer pressure, and they must be able to think of alternate ways of dealing with stress/sadness/boredom instead of drinking.

I assigned students a project to put all of these skills together: radio dramas. In the outline of the dramas, a friend pressures his/her companions to drink or use drugs. Then the friends respond with one of the four ways to say “no” to peer pressure (which we studied in class). Finally, the friends decide to do another activity—like eating ice cream—instead of drinking. The dialogues that my students wrote were excellent. They wrote about fictional characters confronting tough and realistic emotions, like sadness for losing a girlfriend or low self-esteem for failing a math test. In their dialogues they practiced saying “no” and responding to the pressure of their friends. If they can do in real life what they did for their project, they will be set.


Coordinating with Sachiko, my students and I appeared on her health-themed radio show to talk about alcohol awareness for teens. The students performed their dialogues on the air, and then I guided them to talk about the facts of alcohol and alcoholism.




The students were nervous, but they conquered their fear and truly excelled in a public way. Not only were they applying what they learned in class, but they were role models for other teens in the community. The show was a hit, and people from across town have told me how impressed they were with the students. I am so proud of what my kids learned and what they shared. For a lot of them, this was the first time they participated in a type of community service, and I hope their memories of the day carry forward in more community-based activities.