Smart Decisions Year Round
Our students are making smart decisions year round! Our Lewis & Daggett team spent some time with a group of local high school students last week as part of our fall Safe Sober Prom Night efforts. Wow, are they impressive!
As impressive as our students are, we are also starkly reminded of the need for continuing, including year round, encouragement and support. Teens today face incredible peer pressure. We need to use and turn this power of peer pressure into a positive direction.
Unfortunately, much of the daily peer pressure facing our students is not as neutral. Left uncontrolled or not channeled in a proper direction it can often be negative and damaging. Among the pressures our teens face daily are alcohol, drugs, and being sexually active.
People (teens and adults alike) give in to the temptations of peer pressure for a number of reasons. We’re all afraid of rejection and of being teased by others. Teens particularly want to fit in, or to just be cool. Peers influence your life, even if you don't realize it, just by spending time with you. As students readily observe, "You become who you hang with!"
Positive peer pressure can be incredibly powerful too! Positive, supportive and loyal friendships can lead to academic success, sharpening of social skills, and the willingness to experience new cultures and activities.
We can have an enormous influence on our teen generation by encouraging and supporting positive peer pressure. We can encourage positive behaviors and friendships. Most of all, positive peer pressure leads to good decisions and choices that are the building blocks of satisfying and fulfilling lives.