The Drug-Free School Zone

The dean of Science Fiction, Robert Heinlein, used an odd literary device to show how silly we can really be. In several of his earlier novels he would, at the beginning of selected chapters, start the chapter out with "headlines" from current (i.e. 22nd century) news media.

One of the ones I still, to this day, get a chuckle out of, was that the state legislature of some state had passed a law setting the value of pi to an even 3.14.

I was passing an elementary school the other day and noticed a sign that read "Drug-Free School Zone". AS IF JUST PUTTING UP A SIGN MADE IT SO.

I don't wonder if that isn't part of the problem, not part of the solution. We want to solve this problem, but instead of getting in there and really really doing something, we find catchy phrases (Just Say No?) and put up signs (Drug-Free School Zone) and then call it good.

For all I know, the Drug-Free School Zone is just what the community needed, and the sign really is keeping drugs out of that school. But my wife and I took a different route. We actually taught our kids what drugs do and what to do when confronted with them.

I know, that's a novel approach.

P.S. Had I known then what I know now I would have dumped the television set off a cliff.