Page 40 - G-Collard Green Garden

The main issue in nega ve “peer pressure” is that others manipulate you to do something that is not in your best self-interest. We can be in uenced to do things that we may not want to do (study for a test) or that we are afraid to do (try out for a play) but this does not t our de ni on of Peer Pressure as illustrated in the story.
If we are doing something or not doing something because of nega ve emo ons such as anger or fear and someone else tries to in uence us to change, this can be de ned as posi ve peer pressure and is not the same as what was illustrated in the story.
It is important to make the dis nc on between doing what you think is right or correct without allowing others to unduly in uence you as opposed to just doing what you want to do regardless of the “rightness” of that behavior.
A point to make at this me is that the manipula on by the characters in this story is occurring from the “outside .” That is, someone else is trying to get the Young Girl to do something against her be er judgment. These same irra onal in uences (beliefs) can also be internalized. We can tell ourselves the messages of the Rabbit, the Owl or the Bull.
We can manipulate ourselves in a nega ve manner by repea ng messages from the past and let historic irra onali es control our lives. Every me we keep from doing something we want or should do because of some irra onal self-messages (I’m too old, not smart enough, don’t have the me) we are allowing our own “Collard Green” beliefs control us.
It is easy to illustrate this type of thinking with characters outside of ourselves but use every opportunity to help the children realize that they can nega vely manipulate themselves by telling themselves these same “Collard Green” messages.
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