The
Jews were redeemed from Egypt because they stood up to “peer
pressure”! It says in Vayikra Rabba 32:5 that they were redeemed
due to the fact that they did not change their names, their clothing
and their language. Despite the corrupt influences all around them,
they maintained their Jewish identities and did what was right.
We
know that most decisions of our teens are influenced by their peers.
In fact, research at Temple University attempted to ascertain why
teens who are generally good make bad decisions when they are with
their friends. Participants, (young teens, college students and
adults), in the study were asked to play a video game that simulated
driving and asked them to make decisions about slowing down at yellow
lights or speeding up while in a a brain scanner. Half of the time
they were told that friends were watching them play in the other
room. Young teens ran about 40% more yellow lights and had 60% more
crashes when they knew friends were watching. “The regions of the
brain associated with reward showed greater activity when they were
playing in view of their friends. It was as if the presence of
friends, even in the next room, prompted the brain's reward system to
drown out any warning signals about the risk , tipping the balance
toward the reward. The presence of peers activated the reward
circuitry in the brain of adolescents that it didn't do in the case
of adults,” said Laurence Steinberg the author of the study. This
effect of peer pressure was even felt when friends were in the other
room- without any coercion!
We, therefore, in
our Advisory program have had three programs this past week that
focused on the negative and positive influences of peer pressure.
Reflections
Our
6th graders experienced the Reflections program.
Reflections is a Teen Improvisational Theater program run out of the
Bergen County
Division of Family Guidance. Actors from local high schools are
trained to do “improv” on social/emotional topics to present to
younger students by Mrs. Staci Block, their director. Together with
Mrs. Block we planned this year’s program to cover the topic of
Peer Pressure, as the students are in the middle of a unit in
Advisory on Friendship and Relationships. Students were able to
volunteer to act, and interact with the actors as they acted out two
scenarios- a child feeling peer pressure to misbehave in class and a
child feeling peer pressure at his own house to go against his
parents’ house rules. Our own Elie Fried, Max Krantz, Eliana
Suldan and Adam Varnai played the roles of teachers, parents and
students in the improvisational scenarios- without any practice! Our
sixth graders were able to relate to the scenarios and were able to
identify with pressures they often feel to do the wrong thing. We
discussed the strength it takes to stand up to peer pressure and how
to effectively do so. Reflections allows students are able to get
the message in a humorous and creative way.
Rockets
into Roses
Our
7th
graders are in the middle of a unit in their Advisory program called,
“Do Not Stand Idly By”- the importance of acting when one sees
injustice – whether in one’s school or even at the world at
large. We have discussed how to do what what is right in spite of
peer pressure to do the wrong thing. Students have learned that
Political Action is one way they can act when they see injustice.
As part of this unit, the students learned about the rocket attacks
from Gaza into cities in Israel, as presented by Mr. Avinoam Segal,
the Shaliach from the Federation. Since that program students have
been learning the skills of what it takes to be an “upstander”
instead of a bystander when one sees wrong happening. This unit is
culminating in the students taking what they learned and putting it
into practice. They will partner with an organization called United
for Israel that sponsors the Rockets into Roses program, as presented
by Mrs. Nomi Haberman. Yaron Bob, an Israeli artist, creates metal
art sculptures and jewelry out of Kassam rockets that have landed in
Israel. He crafts beautiful roses with the message perseverance and
transforms objects of war into objects of peace. Please see the
following links for a taste of their project:
All
proceeds from the sales go to building shelters and supporting those
who have suffered attacks. The seventh graders will be raising money
to purchase a rose to present to a local politician along with
letters they have written about the need for America to understand
the daily fear Israelis feel regarding potential attacks and to
request their standing by Israel. Stay tuned as we update you about
the project in the coming weeks.
JCC
– Teen Leadership Conference- Middle School
Fourteen
of our 7th
and 8th
graders were privileged to attend the JCC Teen Leadership Conference
for Middle School students on Friday March 1st.
The topic of the conference, coordinated by the JCC and the Bergen
Family Center, was Tolerance and Standing Up to Bullying. The entire
conference was planned and implemented by a committee of middle
schools students from eight schools. Two of our own 8th
graders, Dina Jawetz and Jessica Orski, played a significant role in
planning the conference. The topics addressed at the conference
through hands-on interactive workshops were cyberbullying, the
emotional effects of bullying and bullying intervention. The effect
of peer pressure on bullying and the importance of being “upstanders”
were also highlighted. Students also had the opportunity to question
a panel of adults who were once bullied. It was a unique opportunity
to interact with students from other schools and put our heads
together to target this problem. The slogan of the conference was “Be
the change.” Students came away knowing that they have a
responsibility to go back to their schools and represent all that
they learned by “being the change they wish to see in the world.”
It
says in the Haggadah, “B'chol
dor v'dor, chayav
adam lirot, et
atzmo kilu hu yatza mimitzrayim”
“In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he
himself left Egypt.” Through focusing on peer pressure and its
challenges our students are emulating the yotzei
Mitzrayim who
stood up to the “peer pressure” that surrounded them.
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