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Peer Pressure
Children are exposed to an incredible amount
of negative peer pressure in public schools, and
one of the reasons parents teach their children
at home is to avoid that pressure. Yet, schools
are for the most part merely a convergence of
peer expectations. The field of peer influence
is much larger than the school classroom and
playground. To teach children thoroughly to
react appropriately to peer values, several
defensive and offensive strategies need to be
used.
Radio and television programmers stay
up-to-date with what appeals to various age
groups and pattern their programming
accordingly. Advertising agencies also play a
big role in depicting the characteristics of the
"in crowd." Your child merely has to
walk into a clothing store or look through a
magazine to be drawn to the clothes that will
make him acceptable to his peers. He hears the
newest vocabulary on television or picks it up
from billboards and other advertising mediums.
On several occasions I caught myself saying to
one of my children, "Where did you hear
that?" of "What does that mean?"
A typical reply was, "Oh, Dad! Everybody is
saying it." My first impulse was to blame
their friends or to wonder what their friends'
parents were doing with their children. After I
started listening for the peer talk, I realized
I did not need to go out of my own home in order
for my children to be exposed to negative
values.
Peer identity is based on three main factors:
symbols, attitudes, and conformity. Symbols can
include hair and clothing styles, jewelry, or
any number of gestures. Negative attitudes are
expressed about everything and everyone that
does not fit into the peer pattern. Conformity
to the peer group is absolutely necessary, and
that means not conforming to adult expectations.
Be award of those things that your child should
avoid so that he will not be identified with the
wrong crowd, while at the same time don't
shelter him so much that he is needlessly
labeled as weird.
Several defensive strategies can be employed
to encourage proper attitudes about peer
pressure. Read More
Reprinted
from Home School Helper. Used with
permission of BJU Press. |