Are informal conversations useful from a drug education perspective?
Informal conversations provide valuable opportunities for students and teachers to interact and discuss issues that may be important to one or both of them. From a drug education perspective, informal conversations build resilience by providing opportunities for students and teachers to connect in a very real way. However, it is essential that teachers protect students from making personal disclosures about drug use, or other sensitive topics. This can be done in a number of different ways: • Teachers must make it clear to students from the outset of their relationship that in class discussions involving sensitive topics such as sex, drugs and criminal activity, it is best not to talk in the first person. Instead they should use a ‘one step removed strategy’ such as talking in the third person, using hypothetical situations to ask questions, or use case scenarios. • Teachers can also reinforce this important boundary by being clear from the beginning that they will never ask students p
