Lesson #2: Peer Pressure

The focus of this lesson is on coping with peer pressure. The goals include: 1) Giving students a chance to discuss different kinds of peer pressure, 2) Illustrating how peer pressure relates to school performance, 3) Allowing students to practice saying no and/or leaving situations in which they are being pressured.
Process: Discuss students’ experiences in using the decision-making worksheet, using the following questions.

* How did your decision-making plan work out?
* What do you think you could have done differently?
* How do you think you could use this decision-making process in the future?

Activity:

Explain that learning to say no is an important skill to use in avoiding peer pressure. Invite students to generate some examples of situations in which they feel pressured. These might involve the use of drugs or alcohol, rule breaking or illegal activities, demands for certain types of behavior, and so forth.
Brainstorm ways to say no. For example:

* Look directly at the person and say, “No” or “No, thanks.”
* Laugh and say, “You’ve got to be kidding.”
* Say, “No way,” then turn and walk away without looking back.
* Say, “That’s not for me.”
* Say, “I’m sorry, I won’t do that.”
* If a person persists, repeat any of the above exactly (broken-record technique).
* If someone heckles you, look straight ahead and walk away. (Look forward, not up or down. This gives the message that you mean what you say, won’t change your mind, and don’t feel bad about saying no.)

Point out that a good deal of peer pressure can surround school performance, and that it is important for students to be able to stand up for themselves and resist this pressure. Ask students to pair up, then give each pair an index card on which you have written one of the following role-play situations.

* Your friend asks you to give her your homework to copy.
* Your older sister/brother wants you to use her/his science project as your own so you will have extra time to hang out and do fun things.
* Some kids at school ask you to go to the shopping mall with them, but you have extra homework to do tonight.
* The most popular girl at school asks you if you will steal a copy of the test on the teacher’s desk and give it to her.
* A kid at lunch says that he will rip up your school folder if you don’t give him five dollars.
* Your best friend asks you to study with her, but you know that when you study together time gets wasted and no studying gets done.
* Your three best friends ask you to skip class and goof off.
* Your friend asks you to help play a mean joke on one of your teachers.

Instruct pairs to choose who will play which role and together devise a way to say no to the request. After a few minutes, reassemble the group and have pairs perform their role-plays. Discuss whether or not students feel the responses will be effective, allowing everyone a chance to participate. Emphasize the idea that it is often difficult to say no under pressure.

Conclusion: Discuss the following questions:

* What did you learn about saying no?
* What did you learn about peer pressure?
* Do you think saying no in the ways illustrated would work for you?
* Ask whether students would be willing to try saying no sometime between now and the next time class meets. What kind of situations do they anticipate?