The Power
of Choice®

Video Series for High School Students

featuring Michael Pritchard
VHS or DVD

THE POWER OF CHOICE with Michael Pritchard is a 12-part youth guidance video series aimed at empowering teenagers to make good choices in their lives. It teaches young people that they have the power of choice, that they are responsible for the choices they make, and that they owe it to themselves to choose the best.

Used as a springboard for group discussion, THE POWER OF CHOICE is highly effective at triggering teenagers to talk openly about their personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and to look critically at how they make choices. Each program comes with a companion guide filled with discussion questions, group activities, and writing assignments.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS:

Program 1: THE POWER OF CHOICE
(1 hour)  $79.95  (# LW-POC-1) specify VHS or DVD

In this program comedian/teen counselor Michael Pritchard visits high schools in San Francisco, Denver, New York City, and Biloxi, Mississippi to show young people how to be V.I.P.'s -to use Vision, Initiative, and Perspective as tools for making good choices. Among the many topics they discuss are peer pressure, self esteem, parent relations, teen pregnancy, and drug and alcohol use.

Objectives: To empower young people to take control of their lives by making their own choices, and to give them guidelines for making the kinds of choices that are right for them.

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Program 2: ACTING ON YOUR VALUES
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-2) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, comedian/youth counselor Michael Pritchard, talks with students in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Minneapolis, to discover how our values can guide us in making choices that are right for us. It is a candid exploration of the values on which today's teens base their lives, where those values come from, and what meaning they have, as teenagers grow toward adulthood.

Objectives: To stimulate young people to think critically about their behaviors and beliefs. To explore the benefits of knowing what our own values are. To discover how our values can serve as tools for making good choices. To reveal how living by our values gives us power over our lives and elevates our self esteem.

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Program 3: SELF-ESTEEM
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-3) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, host Michael Pritchard and high school students from Albuquerque, Detroit, Dallas, Wichita, and Columbia, S.C., discuss self-esteem: what is is, what it does for us, how we can enhance it, how we can undermine it, and how we affect the self-esteem of those around us. The underlying message of this show is that good self-esteem leads to good choices, and good choices lead to higher self-esteem. As one boy in Detroit said, "Really, the only thing that you can really count on in your life is that you know yourself. I have my self-esteem. I know what I can do. You have to take it from there."

Objectives: To stimulate young people to think about their level of self-esteem. To make them aware of the relationship between their self-esteem and the quality of the choices they make. To uncover some of the factors that can enhance or diminish their self-esteem. To sensitize them to the affect their own actions have on the self-esteem of others.

Format DVD VHS	Quantity:

 

Program 4: COPING WITH PRESSURES
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-4) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, comedian/teen counselor Mike Pritchard and students from St. Louis; New York City; Cleveland; Detroit; Columbia, SC.; and Gainesville, FL, talk about the pressures they face, from academic competition to peer acceptance to parental expectations. In small group dialogues, they grapple with ways of keeping pressure in perspective and handling it in a manner that serves their best interests.

Objectives: To stimulate young people to think critically about the kinds of pressures they live with. To encourage and empower them to choose for themselves how they will respond to those pressures. To explore the differences between legitimate and illegitimate pressures.

Format DVD VHS	Quantity:

 

Program 5: DRUGS AND ALCOHOL - PART 1
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-5) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, host Michael Pritchard encourages teenagers to come to grips with the question of what to do when "just say no" and "just say yes" just won't do. Students from high schools in Atlanta and Albuquerque talk openly and honestly about the choices (good and bad) they have made with alcohol and drug use. As one teenager relates, "I look back, it felt good then. Now I could cry. Once it wore off, I had to face myself again."

Objectives: To stimulate teens to think critically about their choices involving drugs and alcohol. To help them see that they have the power to make those choices for themselves, regardless of social pressures. To make them aware of how drugs and alcohol can take over their power of choice and reduce the amount of control they have over their own lives.

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Program 6: DRUGS AND ALCOHOL - PART 2
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-6) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, Pritchard and high school students in Albuquerque; Atlanta; Cleveland; Madison, Wisconsin; and Fremont, California, examine how chemical abuse damages relationships, what you can and cannot do about it, and how to respond when a chemically dependent person asks you for help. It is a useful and enlightening look at what to do when someone you care about is hooked.

Objectives: To show how drug and alcohol abuse affects friends and family members of the user. To reveal some ways of responding or intervening that often do work. To clarify what power friends and family members do and do not have in the situation. To show them they can make a difference and inform them about where they can go for help.

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Program 7: DRINKING and DRIVING
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-7) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, comedian/teen counselor Michael Pritchard visits with teenagers in Los Angeles; Nashville; and Madison, Wisconsin, to talk about how to stay out of (or get out of) drinking/driving predicaments and still be cool. As one boy so honestly put it, "It's hard for guys like me who aren't very popular. Friendships I have with guys who brag about dope, drinking, and wild parties are important. A lot of times you just go along with it and tell yourself next time you won't do it. But then you go along with them anyway."

Objectives: Build young people's awareness of the issue of drunk driving. Show them that driving drunk, or going along with others who do, is always a matter of choice. Encourage them to anticipate when a drinking/driving situation may arise and plan alternatives. Help them to see themselves as having the power to prevent drunk driving.

Format DVD VHS	Quantity:

 

Program 8: SEX
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-8) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, Michael Pritchard and students from Columbia, S.C.; Gainesville, FL; Wayne, NJ; Washington, D.C.; Dallas, TX; and New York City, take on the thorny issues they face in making decisions about sex. As they attempt to juggle runaway hormones, religious values, peer pressures, sexually transmitted diseases, and unwanted pregnancies, these teens search for an answer to the age-old riddle of how to make choices tonight that you can live with tomorrow.

Objectives: To stimulate young people to think critically about their expectations and behaviors regarding sexual involvement. To get them to look realistically at the potential consequences of choosing to be sexually active. To motivate them to make those choices for themselves, and to act responsibly on the choices they make.

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Program 9: FRIENDSHIP AND DATING
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-9) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, host Michael Pritchard and high school students in Detroit, Wichita, Brooklyn, and Gainesville, Florida take a heartwarming look at how to create and maintain quality relationships. They identify the ingredients of good friendships, consider how their own actions affect those friendships, examine the dynamics and expectations of romantic and dating relationships, and discuss how these relationships change as we grow up. As one boy in Brooklyn said, "When I started dating, my Mom told me to treat girls the way I'd want boys to treat my sister." Pritchard's response: "You have a great mother."

Objectives: To stimulate young people to look critically at the nature of their relationships with others, and to choose for themselves what they want in a relationship. To empower them take the initiative in shaping their relationships the way they want.

Format DVD VHS	Quantity:

 

Program 10: DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-10) specify VHS or DVD

This program, which was videotaped in two high schools still reverberating from recent suicides, presents a clear minded look at what to do if you or someone you care about is at risk. Host Michael Pritchard and teens in Phoenix and South Bend, Indiana identify the signs frequently exhibited by people who are at risk for suicide and discuss the recommended procedures for intervening. In addition, they examine ways of coping with the depression and stress that often leads to suicide, and encourage people to ask for help when they feel themselves at risk. As one student emphatically puts it, "Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem."

Objectives: To sensitize young people to some of the warning signs of suicide. To provide some guidelines for how to respond to a potential suicide victim. To suggest ways of getting help when they, or someone they care about, is at risk.

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Program 11: COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-11) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, comedian/teen counselor Michael Pritchard visits high schools in Nashville and Boston to explore the critical issue of teen-parent communications. Through probing dialogue and hypothetical situations, they examine some of the ways in which family communication gets blocked, and consider what kinds of choices they can make to improve the situation.

Objectives: To stimulate young people to think critically about how they and their parents communicate with each other. To help them see themselves as having the power to improve those communications by making the right choices. To focus their thoughts on what they can do differently to cause a change for the better.

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Program 12: RAISING YOUR PARENTS
(1/2 hour)  $64.95  (# LW-POC-12) specify VHS or DVD

In this program, host Michael Pritchard and high school students in Washington, D.C.; San Rafael, CA; Columbia, S.C.; Boston, and Atlanta take on the age old question of how to make their relationship with their parents work better. By defining what they want in their relationship with their parents, and examining how their own actions affect that relationship, these teenagers uncover some of the keys to getting what they want in the teen/parent alliance.

Objectives: To stimulate teenagers to think critically about their relationships with their parents. To help them see that they have the power to improve their relationships by making the right choices. To encourage them to take the initiative in improving their relationships with their parents by looking at what they can do differently to cause the change.

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American Children's Television Festival
Action For Children's Television
National Educational Film & Video Festival
American Film & Video Festival
CINE - Golden Eagle
Booklist - Editor's Choice

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