Celebración final

TOPIC AREAS: Drugs, Stress

CONCEPT: There are many facets to each of our lives. We have responsibilities in many areas. We

have to balance school, chores, jobs, friends, family, church, hobbies, music lessons, sports and other interests into twenty-four hour days. When we attempt to take on too many responsibilities, our lives seem to resemble a runaway train hurdling down the tracks. We can’t seem to get a handle on which thing to do next. Across the country I have been seeing more and more high school students carrying around day planners to help them keep track of their various meetings and activities. Something is wrong with this picture! As a society we honor those who take on a lot of responsibility and still seem to get everything done. When a child s life becomes this involved, they need to take a step back and look at what is important and what is not. Stress is not easy for anyone to handle, but definitely not someone who is still trying to discover what direction they want their lives to go. Is it any wonder that the teen suicide rate is increasing at an alarming rate?

If we add drugs to this picture, than it just increases the problem. No longer can students juggle all of their responsibilities because they are concentrating on their drug use. The drug takes over their life and causes them to neglect other areas such as school, family and work. This neglect leads to more stress due to undesirable consequences and many times the answer is simply increased drug use to relieve the increased stress.

METHOD: Classroom activity

TIME NEEDED: 20 minutes and discussion time MATERIALS NEEDED:

2-4 round balloons plus some extras (about 9 inches in diameter) for each participant 1 larger round balloon for each team of 3 to 5 members

2 magic markers for each team

ACTIVITY: Divide your group into teams of three to five people. Give each team a magic marker,

two to three balloons per person and one large balloon. Have them blow up all of the balloons, and tie them closed. Have each student use a magic marker to write activities that they are involved in on the smaller balloons (for example sports, music, etc.). They may put more than one activity on each balloon. On the large balloon have them write either the word “drugs” or list a number of individual drugs such as cocaine, cigarettes, beer, etc.

Once these props have been created, explain that the object will be for the teams to hit the balloons with their hands and keep them in the air for as long as they can. The team works together to keep the balloons in the air. If a balloon hits the ground then they must pick it up and start it again. Have each team start with one balloon per person. After a period of time, such as thirty seconds, have them stop and add a second balloon for each person. Have them keep track of how many times a balloon hits the ground during the thirty seconds. If you are dealing with an older group or one that can easily handle

two balloons per person, then add a third and then a fourth balloon per person.

After they have experienced this, then have them add the balloon marked “drugs”. Explain that they must keep the drug balloon in the air at all costs, even if one of the other balloons starts to hit the floor. No one may hit the balloon marked “drugs” two times in a row. At least two other people must hit the drug balloon before the same person may hit it again.

DISCUSSION IDEAS:

What kinds of activities did you write on your balloons?

Are some of these activities more important to you than others? Why or why not?

Are some of these activities more important to your parents or other adults than to you? Why or why not? Which ones?

How hard was it for your team to keep one balloon per person in the air?

How hard was it for your team to keep two, three or four balloons per person in the air? How hard was it to keep the balloon marked with drugs in the air?

What did you have to do differently to make sure the drug balloon did not hit the floor? How can we compare our own lives to keeping the activity balloons in the air?

How do we know when we are “too busy”?

Have any of your friends become so busy that they did not have time to just “kick back”? Explain.

How can we compare the addition of the drug balloon to drug use? What effect do drugs have on a person’s other activities?

How can the use of drugs cause stress in a person’s life? How can others help a person who is using drugs?

BANKROLL

TOPIC AREA: Values

CONCEPT: How rich you are depends on the perspective you are looking from. How much money is

a lot of money? How do we define rich? These questions are answered differently by each and everyone one of us. A recent survey I read in the newspaper asked people “How much money would it take to make you feel rich?” No matter how much money people had, it was always more. Those making $30,000 thought it would be $100,000 and those making $100,000 thought it would be $300,000. The result of the survey was that everyone thinks they would be rich if they had more money. Very few people felt that what they had was enough. Do we place such a high value on money and material goods that we disregard the things that we already have? Does this desire for more money drive us to work harder, cut corners, cheat people and lie to get ahead? What values are we placing on money, material goods and the desire to have more and what role do these values play in determining our behavior?

METHOD: Classroom activity

TIME NEEDED: 10 minutes and discussion time MATERIALS NEEDED:

A pencil or pen and piece of paper for each person

ACTIVITY: Have each person in the group make a list of the clothes, personal care products and

jewelry they are wearing. If they have braces on their teeth, have them include them also. If it is a younger group that is not wearing a variety of these items, then have them also include a list of the items from their bedroom such as toys, tapes, radio, video games, etc. The object is to have them come up with a list of items that are ordinary and accepted as common place for them to have, own or use.

Now have them place a dollar figure next to each item as to how much that item cost to purchase. Estimates are OK If they have included everyday items like deodorant or perfume, have them list the price of the entire bottle. After they have finished putting a price on each item, have them total up the cost of their list. Collect the papers and put the dollar amounts on the board. Do not identify which paper or total belongs to which person.

After completing writing the dollar amounts on the board, put the figure of $100-$300 on the board. Explain that this is the yearly income of many families in the countries of Africa and other parts of the world. With this amount of money they must buy food, shelter and the other necessities for their entire family.

How does your list compare with the income of these families?

How would you survive if that was all the money your family had to spend in a year? What would be the first things you would be willing to give up to reduce your figure? What would be the last things you would be willing to give up to reduce your figure? How important is money in our society today?

Is this importance helpful or harmful to society? Explain. How important are the things we buy?

How important is it for you to have the latest fad in clothes or trinkets? What kinds of things does the need for more money make people do? Does having money answer all of the problems that people have? Explain. What kinds of things can money not buy?

Are people who have money more important than people who don’t? Explain. Are people who have money treated differently than people who don’t? Explain