Today, the Pre-Teen Connection Group (with my 11yo DD1 as a guest) and us (Joy, an OT and me) talked about SECRETS.
We discussed about having good secrets that you keep to yourself. Why? Because as growing adolescents, they are entitled to their own personal privacy. But if they want to share these good secrets, it is fine too.
We also talked about having bad secrets. And what exactly are bad secrets? These are secrets that you keep to yourself because you are afraid. Afraid because if you let the secret out, somebody else will not like it and you are bound to get hurt. By that somebody who does those bad things to you.
How do we distinguish good secrets from bad secrets?
First, you have to become familiar with the lures used to keep a bad secret quiet. How? When there are threats made. When you have been hurt, sometimes emotionally, more than physically.
Second, you have to recognize the feeling that when you feel something is wrong, then may be you are right.
Third, you can avoid the person who is doing bad things to you, if it is possible. Or you should know when to say “No” or “Stop it” in assertive ways. By standing tall and looking at the person’s eyes and giving him/her the message.
Fourth, when you feel really really bad, afraid and threatened, you have to tell a trusted adult. Tell what happened until someone believes you.
After we discussed these things, we watched a video entitled Chrysanthemum. Please click on the title to see the post about the video.
In our discussion after watching the video, we saw Chrysanthemum experienced being ridiculed in school. She did not do anything about it. If she did, these things wouldn’t have continued for a long time. And she wouldn’t have felt bad for a long time.
Now we wouldn’t want our children to experience these things. So why don’t you sit down with them as soon as you have time, and talk to them about these things. Especially now that school is about to start (here in the Philippines), we have to help them learn how to recognize situations like these in order for them to know what to do.
This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Being a (Special Ed) Teacher, Challenge Yourself, Lessons in Life, Parenting, Teaching Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
