Peer Pressure

The lesson manual's guidelines for my next Primary lesson begin with an activity that I was already going to to anyway: Hangman, and the phrase of the week is "Peer Pressure."

Peer Pressure, as my class will learn, can be positive or negative, good or bad. And, just as peer pressure can be used to influence us, we can also use it to influence others. As with many other supposedly good or bad things, it just a tool. The only thing good or bad about any tool is how that tool is used.

Peer pressure has a bad reputation, but it can be used for good, not to "pressure" others into "doing good," but to use our influence to encourage others to do good. There's a fine line there, but if we stay on the right side of it, we can become a force for good in the world without actually exercising force.

I will have to choose my words carefully as I teach about Peer Pressure, just as my kids will need to learn how to be careful with how they influence others. But everyone has an impact on everyone around them, so no one is able to completely stop influencing others. The best we can hope for is to learn that influence in the right ways and to the right degree.

Peer Pressure is often seen as negative force, but, in the right hands, it can be the exact opposite: Positive Persuasion.