Abuse prevention activists are pressuring local, state, and national governments to wage a similar bombardment to educate the public in two directions. One is to reach adults-first with basic information on what constitutes abuse so that no man will ever again say, "It's only my wife" or "What's all the fuss about? I didn't lay a hand on her"; and second on a woman and the legal effects on the man who abuses her. While the goal is admirable and the program would undoubtedly effect some change, results would be limited. As Lisa Frisch of the New York State Office for the Preention of Domestic Violence explains, a man can understand it all intellectually and still act from a deep-rooted need for control that only intensive therapy can reverse.
The other direction is to reach children before their stereotypes are fixed in society's concrete-to discuss the interdependence and equality of men and women an to explore constructive ways of expressing anger and need for control that leads to abuse. School programs of this kind are growing, sponsored by local governments and by women's shelters. My Sister's Place in New York's Westchester ounty runs two day programs in schools throughout lower Wetchester, of which The New York Times reported that in every class children could name neighbors who were abused and al least one knew of a woman murdered by her husband. Education will bring awareness, but whether it ill bring change will take years to tell. "Progress is being made, bu in itsy bitsy baby steps," claims Thead DuBow of My Sister's Place.