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29-521: The Scientific Temperance Federation was founded in 1906 upon the death of Mary Hunt , head of the Women's Christian Temperance Union 's Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction . Mrs. Hunt had avoided accusations that she profited from her volunteer work by signing over to the Scientific Temperance Association the royalties from the temperance textbooks she wrote and edited for

58-467: A chemistry course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , she became interested in how the textbooks addressed the effects of alcohol on the human body. She developed a set of instructional materials for teaching elementary school children about the problems of drinking alcohol. In 1879 Frances Willard invited Hunt to speak on her instructional programming at the national convention of

87-641: A few friends. Hunt's secretary Cora Frances Stoddard took over the leadership of the organisation. The association used its funds to support the maintenance of the national headquarters of the WCTU's Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction, a large house in Boston that was also Mrs. Hunt's residence. Emma Lee Benedict Transeau published Hunt's biography in the Scientific Temperance Federation Series. Drug education Drug education

116-456: A progressive approach that will motivate and encourage young people to make positive decisions in life. Emphasis within these programs is also placed in focusing on deterring peer pressure as a means of empowering adolescents and promoting autonomy. This approach reaches 750,000 primary and secondary students in Australia each year. The prevalence of abstinence-based programs declined throughout

145-630: A range of drug education programs through the National Drug Education Strategy (NDES) by providing schools with effective drug education programs. The program aims to manage drug related issues and incidents within schools. The Australian Government Department of Health 's Positive Choices portal, released in response to a National Ice Taskforce report, facilitates access to interactive evidence-based drug education resources and prevention programs for school communities. It builds on existing drug education resources developed by researchers at

174-593: A reduction in substance use, and one study concluded that suburban students who went through the D.A.R.E. program were actually significantly more likely to engage in drug use. A 2012 study published in the journal of Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy came to the conclusion that students aged 13 to 15 who completed a drug and alcohol prevention program were less likely to develop a drug or alcohol problem. Drug education can also occur through public campaigns rather than education programs. Examples include advertising campaigns focused on raising awareness such as

203-704: A trusting relationship with a young person, these role models can gradually change attitudes towards drug use and steer the young person back into education, training and employment . This approach reaches young people who have dropped out of mainstream education. It also benefits local communities by reducing crime and anti-social behaviour . Past research into drug education has indicated that effective drug education must involve engaging, interactive learning strategies that stimulate higher-order thinking, promote learning and be transferable to real life circumstances. Studies on school-based programs indicated that professional training and support may be required to increase

232-518: Is the planned provision of information, guidelines, resources, and skills relevant to living in a world where psychoactive substances are widely available and commonly used for a variety of both medical and non-medical purposes, some of which may lead to harms such as overdose , injury , infectious disease (such as HIV or hepatitis C ), or addiction . The two primary approaches to drug education are harm-reduction education and abstinence-based education. Abstinence-based drug education began with

261-464: The Congressional Record and distributed more than 100,000 copies. Although she stirred controversy, one writer noted that "by the time of her death in 1906, Mary Hunt had shaken and changed the world of education" with her campaign for mandatory temperance instruction. In 1901–1902, 22 million school children were required to take Hunt-approved temperance instruction. "The WCTU was perhaps

290-538: The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre such as the Climate Schools (now called OurFutures ) programs that have been proven to reduce alcohol and drug related harms and increase student well-being. In addition to government-funded programs, a number of not-for-profit organisations such as Life Education Australia provide drug education programs to adolescents. These preventative programs aim to deliver

319-491: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union . By 1880, Hunt convinced the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to develop its textbook committee into a new Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction . As Superintendent of the national Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction , she worked with local superintendents on how to implement curriculum reform at the state, county and local levels. She provided step-by-step instructions to

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348-467: The de facto power to veto any such textbook of which she did not approve. Hunt sent the first of her criteria for acceptable books to publishers, who then submitted the resulting drafts to her for recommendations and possible endorsement. For example, the WCTU leader did not approve of any book that mentioned the widespread medicinal use of alcohol or any book that even implied that drinking in moderation did not inevitably lead to serious alcohol abuse. By

377-406: The U.S. Commissioner of Education, agreed (Timberlake, 1963, p. 46). A study of legislative control of curriculum in 1925 indicated that teaching about temperance "is our nearest approach to a national subject of instruction; it might be called our one minimum essential". The WCTU "laid the groundwork for the formal drug education programs that remain high on the agendas of today", and some of

406-741: The UK Government's FRANK campaign or the US "media campaign". In efforts to prevent substance abuse , drug education may counter-productively perpetuate myths and stereotypes about psychoactive substances and people who use them. Indirect drug education programs such as the UK government's Positive Futures Program may utilize activities such as sports and the arts to indirectly steer young people away from drug use. These programs aim to engage young people by relating to them and putting them in contact with positive role models (coaches/trained youth workers). After building

435-434: The WCTU chapters' superintendents for education, including how to put direct, single-issue pressure on elected representatives through demonstrations, meetings, petitions, pamphlets and letters. She envisioned success from the grass roots to the national level to ensure passage of laws requiring that textbooks teach every school child a curriculum promoting complete abstinence for everyone and alcohol prohibition. She achieved

464-456: The WCTU's program of temperance instruction was seriously defective and probably counter-productive. Mrs. Hunt prepared a reply in which she charged the Committee of Fifty with being prejudiced against abstinence instruction, criticized it for what she considered gross misrepresentation of facts, and insisted that the endorsed textbooks were completely accurate. She then had the reply entered into

493-570: The WCTU. That association, which consisted of Mary Hunt, her pastor, and a few of her friends, used its income to maintain the national headquarters of the Department of Scientific Instruction. That building was also the very large home of Mrs. Hunt. Upon her death, this arrangement clouded ownership of her estate, which led to the creation of the Scientific Temperance Foundation. Mrs. Hunt's personal secretary, Cora Stoddard, headed

522-503: The anti-alcohol " temperance education" programmes of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in the United States and Canada in the late 19th century. In many respects, the WCTU's progressive education agenda set the template for much of what has been done since in the name of drug education. Abstinence-based education programs aim to inform adolescents of illicit drug use in an effort to prevent illegal drug use while highlighting

551-419: The dangers of problematic substance use and strongly emphasizing abstinence . Many studies have found that school-based abstinence education programs such as D.A.R.E. did not lead to a reduction in substance use, and one study discovered that suburban students who went through the D.A.R.E. program were actually significantly more likely to engage in drug use. The Australian Government has implemented

580-410: The early 2020s, many organizations such as the US government's SAMHSA had shifted from abstinence-based education to harm reduction-based education. A systematic review of abstinence-based school drug education published in 2003 found mixed results on its effectiveness. Many studies conducted in the early 2000s found that school-based abstinence education programs such as D.A.R.E. did not lead to

609-430: The early 21st-century following an uptick in substance use and the rise of the opioid epidemic . School-based drug education programs have declined alongside it. In a 2021 survey, only 60% of American 12-17 year-olds reported seeing drug and alcohol preventing messaging in school. D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is a program in the United States implemented in 5th grade school classrooms to educate students on

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638-464: The effects of drugs and temptations they may encounter, particularly in later education. The police officers who administer the program can also serve as community models for students. There is no scientific evidence that preventive drug education such as D.A.R.E. is effective, and some evidence that it may actually increase substance use rates in suburban teenagers. Harm reduction education emerged as an alternative to abstinence-based education in

667-491: The late 20th-century and early 21st-century. Rather than encouraging complete abstinence and aiming to completely eradicate drug use in society, harm reduction education accepts that drug use is inevitable in modern society. It aims to reduce the harms associated with drug use by providing individuals with comprehensive information about the nature of substance use. Harm reduction education aims to improve health, social, and economic measurements rather than aiming primarily to reduce

696-436: The laws for which Mrs. Hunt lobbied so persistently still remain. Controversy followed Mary Hunt even after her death. In order to deal with the accusation that she profited from her position and power, Mary Hunt had signed over to charity the royalties due her on the thousands of temperance textbooks sold annually. Her never-publicized charity was the Scientific Temperance Association, a group composed of Hunt, her pastor, and

725-425: The mid-1890s, the WCTU's program of temperance instruction and the textbooks endorsed by Mary Hunt were increasingly being criticized. The Committee of Fifty , a group formed in 1893 by scholars to study the "liquor problem", was highly critical of the ideological purity demanded by Mrs. Hunt. It argued that children should not be taught "facts" that they would later find to be incorrect. The group concluded that

754-495: The most influential lobby ever to shape what was taught in public schools. Though it was a voluntary association, it acquired quasi-public power as a censor of textbooks, a trainer of teachers, and arbiter of morality". Temperance writers viewed the WCTU's program of compulsory temperance education as a major factor leading to the Eighteenth Amendment establishing National Prohibition. Other knowledgeable observers, such as

783-548: The new organization. Because of the substantial fortune she had amassed in promoting compulsory temperance education, and the tens of millions of textbooks this required, the Scientific Temperance Federation was able to engage in a wide variety of activities to promote the temperance movement and prohibition. A major nation-wide project was an innovative "Education on Wheels" project that took temperance education directly to people at their homes and farms. With

812-446: The rate of drug consumption. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, websites dedicated to harm reduction education such as the educational database Erowid and the harm reduction forum Bluelight emerged. Erowid hosts information about hundreds of psychoactive plants and substances , while Bluelight is an online forum on which users discuss harm reduction and drug use. Both sites collectively host about 100,000 experience reports. By

841-726: The repeal of prohibition and the decline of the temperance movement , the Federation joined the Temperance Education Foundation in 1933. Mary Hunt Mary Hannah Hanchett was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on July 4, 1830, the daughter of Nancy Swift Hanchett (1804–1897) and Ephraim Hanchett (1803–1854). She graduated from Maryland's Patapsco Female Institute and stayed on to teach science. She married Leander B. Hunt of Massachusetts in 1852 and moved to Hyde Park, Boston . While helping her son Alfred E. Hunt study for

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