Editorial: 'Social norming' meets Palo Alto Editorial: 'Social norming' meets Palo Alto (April 28, 2004)

Parents, educators, teens should heed survey and keep dialogue going -- using questions and doubts to further discussion and action
Is the glass half empty or half full?

That age-old perceptual paradox came home this week to hundreds of Palo Alto teens and families as they read about or discussed the emerging results of a "social norming" survey -- 37 questions about personal patterns of alcohol and drug use and what one believes "everyone else is doing."

The survey, part of a Montana-based program called "Most of Us," was administered anonymously to students at Palo Alto's two high schools and three middle schools. The results were reported from the positive perspective -- how many students don't drink regularly or haven't used marijuana or other drugs. A beginning math student could calculate how many say they have used drugs or alcohol, so no one is being fooled.

But the significant aspect of the survey is how poorly the teens did on the questions about what percentage of students use drugs or alcohol -- estimates generally were higher than the self-reported levels of use. At one middle school, only 15 percent correctly perceived the level of alcohol use in the prior month, according to the results.

This "perception gap" is important because it becomes a kind of "ambient peer pressure" that could influence a youngster to go along with direct invitations to have a drink, a toke or a pill, or inhale something.

As this week's cover story points out, the effectiveness of "social norming" is being debated in academic circles, largely because of a Harvard study that found no change in the behavior or attitudes of college students when confronted with a similar perception gap. But a college student is quite a different being than a middle-school or high-school student.

At the same time, members of the local committee behind the social-norming program must be sure the "tell it like it is" information they present to teens and parents is complete and believable, not selectively presented to support a desired outcome, as suggested in the cover story.

This effort to change perceptions -- and personal choices based on perceptions -- is too important not to give it our best shot as a community.

Editorial: 'Dead tree standing' shows Editorial: 'Dead tree standing' shows (April 28, 2004)need for green sensitivity
The great tree, at least a half-century old, stands alone as a magnificent specimen of its kind in the lower Palo Alto foothills. Sadly, it is the wrong kind.
The giant gum eucalyptus tree had the misfortune to once be a non-native seedling -- perhaps when World War II was still being fought, or when the Cold War was beginning -- on a piece of land that ultimately became a nature preserve of the City of Palo Alto.
Anywhere else in town the tree might have qualified as a specimen tree worthy of preserving -- although eucalyptus trees are excluded from city tree-protection ordinances.
But the steward of the 600-acre Arastradero Preserve, the Acterra conservation organization, are under city contract to restore the property to its natural condition. The great eucalyptus, dubbed "Magnifique" by an ardent fan who visited it regularly to meditate beneath it and enjoy its presence, had become an illegal alien.
The tree was "ringed" -- notches chain-sawed into it's life-supplying outer layers. This means it now is a dead tree standing, even though it still appears alive. Acterra stewards, with city approval, have already removed between 150 and 250 smaller eucalyptus trees from the land.
There is no argument that the Australian trees alter the environment, giving off oils toxic to other species and posing a fire hazard when in groves. But there should be an exception to every rule, and the size, age and isolation of this particular tree should have qualified it for a reprieve. It wasn't invading anything, or generating seedlings. It was just there. It was a shame to kill it.
In its death, the tree will be left as a "habitat tree," giving life and homes to dozens of species -- a skeleton of its earlier self.
But it will also be symbolic: a reminder of an age-old certainty that rigid adherence to any ideology -- left, right, religious, political, or green -- can be dangerous to living things. In this case, the well-meaning stewards of the city's newest natural preserve couldn't see the tree due to their zeal for their mission.

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