Wise Highs Curriculum

The Life Education Center

For over 30 years, in collaboration with the Iroquois-Kankakee Regional Office of Education (I-KAN ROE), the Partnership has delivered unique substance misuse prevention curriculums to teach students the skills needed to choose healthy lifestyles, support social and emotional development, and avoid the dangers caused by misusing alcohol and other dangerous substances, including prescription drugs.

Nearly 10,000 students in kindergarten through middle school from almost 50 public and private schools in Kankakee and Iroquois Counties participate in the Life Education Center programs every year.

Wise Highs

Innovative teaching techniques encourage student participation in learning about the human body and ways to keep physically and emotionally healthy. Skills needed to deal with peer pressure are also provided.

Fun and interesting audiovisual aids are incorporated into lessons. Carpet Kid - a game where children place replicas of the body's organs on a child that is laying on a carpet marked with the shape of a body - is among the favorites.

Too Good for Drugs

Too Good for Drugs is a comprehensive evidence-based classroom curriculum developed by the Mendez Foundation. The lessons in this program introduce and review a series of skills to prepare youth to make healthy choices and resist unhealthy behaviors in life. The student, school, family and community all play an important part in reinforcing the skills and concepts taught during the program.

This program empowers teens to meet the challenges of middle school life, fostering confidence and building resistance to substance abuse. Students set and reach more complex goals and, in the process, develop and practice stronger decision-making skills and effective communication skills. Interactive games and activities create an experiential learning environment so students can learn and apply the skills in the classroom setting.

Additional activities

Best Practice Contest
The LEC sponsors a Best Practice Contest for some 600 teachers.  Monetary awards of $100, $50 and $25 are awarded every year to teachers at each grade level who develop the most creative reinforcement activity for their students.

Billboard contest
Every year, the LEC enlists the talents of its 5th and 6th grade students to assist in promoting its anti-substance abuse message.  Incorporating the theme of “Wise Highs . . . Choices You Can Live With,” students develop artwork that is used for publication on billboards throughout Kankakee and Iroquois counties.