Unrealistic Teachings

[SnowyMacie]

So, this weekend I went to volunteered with my church's youth group retreat, and it brought back memories of when I went on retreats with my youth group back in the day. Then later this night I was in a conversation on another site about how unrealistic some of the things we were taught about what high school, peer pressure, and all of that was going to be like from our school. I then thought about how the same thing happened at youth conferences, youth group, etc. What I was taught about those things was not even remotely what I experienced at my school, my friends felt the same way, and now it seems like that was a common thing to experience.

Did anyone else have unrealistic teachings about peer pressure and what is "cool" when you were growing up? If so, what were they?

For me, these top ones unrealistic I now think back on....

1) Drugs - Our DARE program in elementary school basically lead us to believe that being pressured to do drugs would be this common thing we would have to constantly battle when we got older, not even being sold, but just offered drugs for free and in plain daylight completely randomly.
2) Being bullied for my faith - I never saw, experienced, or even heard of anyone in my conservative, Bible belt, Christian majority high school being bullied for their faith.
3) Peer Pressure - Yes, and I everyone experienced peer pressure, but the way it was presented and taught to us back then didn't resemble reality. I was told that if you were invited to a party, you would be pressured into drinking, and if you didn't you would be forever uncool to them and they would make fun of you. Here's how it actually went down "Hey, we got booze!" "No thanks, my parents would kill me" "Cool, the coke's over there." Nobody really cared, and the ones who were mean about it if you didn't do something weren't really liked by anyone.

 

[grandvizier1006]

It honestly deepnds on the environment you live in and the kind of people you hang out with. I had trouble making friends so I didn't face much literal peer pressure. But when everyone else around you does one thing you get a sense that it's "normal", and I certainly wanted to be "normal".

That just varies for different people. Some people can turn away drugs or excessive drinking easily while other people get hooked. Some people get persecuted, others don't. Ironically, Nancy Reagan was probably right: if you just say no the first time, it's not a big deal.

 

[OcifferPls]

I remember DARE, but hardly anything about what they taught. I don't think I paid enough attention, although I did win a school-wide essay contest once that was part of the DARE program, by accident.

Neither my school nor my parents really taught me much about life, sadly, so I don't have much to contribute.

The only unrealistic thing I can remember was my mom freaking out the first time I was on a motorcycle. I was riding down the street and before I could reach a safe point to turn around, she started screaming at me to turn that bike around lol. The street was too narrow and I was too inexperienced to anticipate the weight of the bike as I turned. It tipped over, I unintentionally pulled the throttle, and the next thing I knew I was experiencing my first wheelie. From that point on I wasn't allowed to touch motorcycles while I was in her house, but, man, she could have saved me a world of hurt that day. That was one time I shouldn't have listened to her.

 

[alsughasoughaiuyfygh]

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[Qyöt27]

We had the 'follow-up' to DARE in 7th grade: GREAT, to deter a bunch of [in my class' case, predominantly] middle and upper middle class white kids in the school's technology and science magnet program from joining inner city gangs (also to wit, the school itself was located in a ritzier part of the city, just a couple blocks away from million-dollar waterfront mansions). I don't remember any of it, aside from the fact that as a reward for completing it, they held some sort of big festival out on the field behind the school at the end of the year and just let all of us skip class and socialize for most of the day.

I kid you not. The 90s were a weird time.