2012 Vol 5 Building Futures.pdf - Merici College

YEAR 8 ENLIGHTEN DAYHelping To Raise Amazing GirlsYear 8 Enlighten Day“Open any teen magazine and youwill see that much of the informationthe media bombards teenage girlswith is negative and contradictory;no wonder they report feeling stressedand inadequate”This was the opening statement to year8 girls who had gathered together toparticipate in workshops delivered byDanni from enlighten education.The day was made up of three separateworkshops led by Danni Miller, awinner of a 2012 Leadership award. Inthe morning the girls created journalsfor reflection that they cheerfullydecorated. This is a journal to be filledwith happy thoughts and events thatcan be used to help make their internalself-talk positive. Teenage girls tendto talk to themselves in a negative andself-deprecating manner and over timethis helps to erode self-esteem andconfidence. To assist with this changeof self-talk each girl received a pinkwrist band to wear for thirty days as areminder to be kind and positive about4their intelligence and image. The ideabehind this is that it takes approximatelythirty days to change a habit. It is hopedthat at the end of this thirty days manyof the girls will be unconsciously tellingthemselves positive messages.The students then delved into thecomplexities of girl world and learnednew skills for dealing with friendships andconflict. This workshop gave the girlssome insight in to the long lasting effectsthat hurtful throw away comments canhave on another person. They were givenstrategies to deal with these commentsand ways to resolve friendship conflictsin a constructive and mature manner.One simple strategy was to think beforereacting, to seek the advice of an olderand wiser female and to take some timeto calm down before confrontation.The final workshop explored thenegative images and messages thatgirls receive from the media. Girls arebombarded with hundreds of advertisingimages every day that often portrayan unattainable physical image forwomen. Danni took the girls throughthe realities of these images such asphoto shopping and other tricks thatadvertising agencies use to sell products.The workshop entitled “Girl Essentials”was an overwhelming success with allof the girls. It was a happily noisy andanimated year group that walked out ofschool on Monday August 6.The day was followed up with aninformation evening for parents. DanniMiller presented her workshop “wake upsleeping Beauty” to around fifty parents.She gave parents an overview of whatshe had presented to their daughtersboth in the year 8 day and also the Year9 day that was held last semester. Thisenabled those parents to re-affirm themessages of empowerment, positive selftalkand the negative media to the girls.Parents were given an insight into theoften thorny world that teenage girls livein and an understanding of what theirdaughters are trying to cope with everyday. The buzz from parents at the endof the session was that it was extremelyworthwhile and educational for them asparents and for their daughters.Colleen GallagherJunior Coordinator