Health Class Discussion Prompts: Refusal Skills - How to Say “No” Without Saying “No” (Instant Printable)
two health teacher pet peeves & a Classroom discussion idea for teaching refusal skills to teenagers
Teaching refusal skills is rightfully outlined in SHAPE America’s National Health Standards as a critical skill students need to live healthy lives. But my, oh my, do I have two big pet peeves about how health teachers teach refusal skills.
Instant Access: Click to Print the Questions
Pet Peeve #1: We’re so focused on saying “no” to specific behaviors we don’t want students to engage in (i.e. vaping) that we forget to teach students how to reflect internally and build self-awareness of what they want to say no to. We’re just telling them what to say no to rather than teaching them how to identify when they want to say no.
Pet Peeve #2: We like to think that learning how to say “no” is as simple as saying no. When in reality, we rarely give people a straight no. Think for a moment about the last few times you declined an offer from someone. How did you deliver your refusal? Did you say “no,” or did you package it in a way that required you to give a full-on rejection? (My guess is it’s the latter.)
This is exactly why I made this instant download for my students (Click to Print the Questions). The goal was to help students build awareness of the different ways that we practice refusal skills and to give them some ideas for how they can say no without having to say no.