Life Education Trust - Matthew

I think that the programme Life Education trust run is really quite important because it's hard to realise and hard to accept but in almost every school there will be a group of "bad boys (or girls) " and almost always be weed in highschools. It's just not getting involved with it or as Jo said, having the right friends so you're not sucked in to things. Their set up over the country seems to be working well. And it's goood that their system is aimed at our ages and that they enforce these areas when we're young and fresh.

The one message that seemed to permeate through all Jo's talks was simply to delay the decision of drugs until your brain has matured and can assess the situation and decision better. Jo said Trevor Grice's philosophy was that even he changed the mind of one student; it will have been worth it. It was  surprising to hear the percentage of all New Zealander's involved with drugs and it just showed how big a problem it is but also how hard to tackle this sort of a problem. 

Having spent eight years at school I frequently ask myself which teachers have made a real difference in my years and it seems to be the same honest, forgiving, peaceful, patient and having the quality of being able to create a learning environment and create relationships with every student. And with the short time we had with Jo she has left me with an impression of ticking all those boxes; she definitely knew what she was doing. It's always good having Harold back too though and it reminded me of learning about things like stars and space in Year 1 and never really caring about anything but Harold at the end of the session. So it was nice hearing his jokes for one last time.