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The Volney Rogers Middle School Youth for Justice
team sought to head off youth smoking with their project. Through the
team's research, they learned that children frequently begin smoking
because they see their peers doing it; therefore, they think that
smoking is "cool" and makes them look grown up. These factors can be
attributed to the fact that teens are the primary target for the tobacco
companies. In order to influence children at an early age, the YFJ team
chose to target 4th graders and teach them about the dangers of smoking.
Fourth graders were chosen because the team felt that by that age,
students are old enough to understand the dangers of smoking, without
having been exposed to the tobacco propaganda that they are bombarded
with as teens. Several years ago, the Volney Rogers YFJ team developed
and wrote a program called T.E.A.C.H. (Teen Educators Affecting
Children's Health). T.E.A.C.H. remains the focus of the YFJ team this
year.
This program pairs up Volney Rogers 8th graders
with 4th grade students at nearby Kirkmere Elementary school, where the
older students teach a three-part program. In the first part, the
younger students are taught the dangers of smoking. That is followed
with sharing the reasons some kids begin to smoke. The final part of
the program teaches kids the most effective ways to say "NO!" to offers
of tobacco. The 8th graders spend six days in every 4th grade classroom
at Kirkmere, supplementing the program with skits,
role-playing, and hands-on materials. An essential part of the program
is that the 4th graders are actually taught by the 8th graders, who
serve as role models for the younger students. At the end of the
six-week program, the 4th graders "graduate" and are given T-shirts to
commemorate their efforts.
This year, the YFJ team conducted a survey for the current 8th grade
class, many of whom went through the T.E.A.C.H. program when they were
in elementary school. The survey asked whether the students thought the
program was beneficial, and whether they currently smoke or use
tobacco. One hundred percent of those eighth graders surveyed who
participated in T.E.A.C.H. as elementary students reported that they do
not smoke.
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