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ACTIVITY 1

This is an individual activity. Every student and also the teacher (from her school days) will
describe at least one incident where they felt pressured in school and one incident where they
felt pressured outside of school to behave in a certain way. They will include details such as:

• Who was pressurising them?
• What was the pressure?

• Did they give in to the pressure?
• What were the consequences of giving in/not giving in to the pressure?

They can share this in class or just with the teacher if they are not comfortable in sharing openly.

KEY LEARNING

• It is common to be pressurised by peers: Not just children and teens, even adults may
sometimes feel pressurised by a peer to do things they are not comfortable with. We all can
learn from each other and empathise with each other.

• It may be diffi cult and impossible to say ‘No’: In some situations, it may become very diffi cult
to say no, especially if there is danger of physical harm being caused to you. In such cases, it is
better to remove yourself from the situation.

• Better to avoid such situations than having to take diffi cult decisions: Th e human intuition
is very strong. Sometimes, we can sense the danger in becoming friends with somebody or
getting involved in a situation. If you sense this danger, it is wise to back off rather than get
caught up and regret later.

BUILDING UNDERSTANDING

The term ‘peers’ refers to the people who are at a similar
Th e term ‘peers’ refers to the people who are at a similar
level as us, in terms of age and what they are doing in life,
level as us, in terms of age and what they are doing in life,
such as our classmates, friends from the neighbourhood
such as our classmates, friends from the neighbourhood
and maybe siblings. Sometimes, in order to seem cool

and happening to our peers, we may also do things
which we do not like, such as going for an outing or
claiming to like certain movies and people, which is
not actually true. Th is pressure to do things which
we actually may not want to do, just to be popular
among peers, is known as peer pressure.

Let’s try and answer the following questions, by taking
a closer look at our own lives:

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