This term, grade 9s and 10s participated in a Peer Pressure Workshop with Ajarn Amandine leading them in a live experiment! 

In our Coin Madness activity, students were asked to look at a jar of coins and make an initial, independent guess as to how many coins were in the jar. They then came together into increasingly larger groups to make a group decision, after discussions. In the end, they were to make one final independent guess regarding the total coins in the jar. 

Inevitably, the individual's first and final guesses were rarely the same! This gave us the chance to point out how our peers can influence our thoughts and our actions, how suggestible we can sometimes be (without knowing it), and how important it is to get some perspective and see who's pulling the strings on our decision making! We discussed the power of peer pressure- at times serving as a positive influence and sometimes not, and how ultimately, since we are the ones who have to face up to the consequences of our actions, becoming aware of the pull of our friends can help us cut those strings.