Summary
Helping youth understand the choices and consequences they encounter in their everyday lives is demonstrated through the Teen Maze approach.
Situation
Education is the key to raising healthy and successful young people. However, this goes well beyond our traditional educational focus of reading, writing and arithmetic. Today, our young people face a reality that includes sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, and emotional confusion from the mixed messages they receive from their peers and the media.
Currently in Candler County, 59.6% of teens graduate from high school on time. In 2006, 30 births were reported to unwed teens which can be factor for teens not graduating from high school on time.
Response
Candler County's local agencies united in order to educate youth that every decision they make has consequences, and some of those consequences are not good.
A Teen Maze is a life-size game that engages and educates teens while they're having fun! It's an event that incorporates youth, adults and parents...all working together...to create healthy youth opportunities. Participants examine the consequences of life's choices in a hands-on, realistic, educational, creative and fun way.
Twenty-four agencies participated to bring the Teen Maze to Metter High School.
Impact
During the maze, over 100 students walked through 12 different stations, that illustrate various scenarios in which students face peer pressure. Situations included: “Peer Pressure Alley,” an area filled with suggestive advertisements; an STD (sexually transmitted disease) Station, which features an “STD Roulette” wheel which students can spin to see the untreated effects of certain STDs; a Drug and Alcohol Station, showing how drug addiction can rapidly age people and destroy their organs; a drugstore, in which students can buy “contraception”; a Pregnancy Station in which students wear a pregnancy suit if their contraception is unsuccessful; a graduation station for people who make good choices; a jail and a car-wreck scenario for people who make bad choices; and a funeral home complete with a casket for people who make the worst choices.
The fate of the students depended on a combination of chance and the choices they made through the maze.
Wendy Salter, High School Counselor stated “It basically gets them prepared for dealing with real life.” She added “These are different situations that they may encounter when they are hanging out with their friends. They need to be aware of the so-called pitfalls in life. This helps give them all the information they need so they can make the best decision and not fall victim to peer pressure.”
“The frontal lobe of the brain [which controls judgment] doesn't really mature until their mid-20s or early 30s, so when we see our teenagers doing irrational things, it is because that part of the brain is not developed,” Salter added further. “The whole thing is to get them to think. If you know better, you will do better.”
All the students that participated in the maze were asked to complete a survey. One hundred and forty-one surveys were returned. One hundred percent stated that they had learned something new about choices and consequences from participating. One student commented that she “really got a look into how bad alcohol and drugs really are.” Another student stated, “my life is valuable, I only get one chance to live it so I better do it right the first time.”
The impact the teen maze is having on the community continues to grow. Of the 141 surveys that were returned, 130 teens stated that the Teen Maze should be done again. It is now placed on the high school calendar during pre-planning in the summer and is schedule to be held every year prior to the prom. Family Connection Coordinator, Lisa Rigdon said. “You can teach from a book, and you can retain a lot, but if you can interact with it, you will learn a lot more. This allows them to feel, touch and see what can happen,” she added.
State Issue
Positive Development for Individuals, Families and Communities
Details
-
Year:
2010
-
Geographic Scope:
County
-
County:
Candler
-
Program Areas:
