Peer Pressure is Tough, whether it's 1900 Japan or 2003 Rhode Island -- RI Teacher's Japanese Family Story Harks Back 100 Years

GUEST ALERT: Rhode Island teacher/author Andy William Frew will be at Barnes & Noble, Warwick, RI, May 17. His new book, "The Invisible Seam" addresses peer pressure, which he says is cross-cultural and can best be resisted through personal integrity.

Peer pressure predates drugs, cigarettes, and negative pop "role models" by millennia. What enables some kids to resist bad influences while others succumb?

"No matter where or when they've lived, a child's only real defense against peer pressure has been personal integrity," says Rhode Island teacher and author, Andy William Frew. "The best way I know to teach it is by example."

An example from Frew's own family history was recently released as a picture book by Rhode Island publisher Moon Mountain. Set in Japan around 1900, THE INVISIBLE SEAM is based on a true incident from the life of Frew's wife's great grandmother, who was once a young apprentice kimono maker. Under severe pressure from jealous co-workers to reduce the quality of her work, she had only her integrity to resist the repeated insults, attacks, and sabotage.

As a third-grade teacher, Frew has plenty of opportunities to observe peer pressure:

+++ It's cross-cultural and timeless. "It occurs among all ethnic groups," he says. "The peer pressure that my great grandmother-in-law faced 100 years ago in Japan is identical to what American kids face today."

+++ It's hard to resist. "Peer pressure is extremely powerful because no one wants to be isolated."

+++ Peer pressure can be a positive force. "Kids can pressure their peers not to smoke, drink, or do drugs. Peer pressure is all that keeps many adults from committing anti-social acts."

+++ Personal integrity must be taught. "No one is born with the integrity to risk ostracism. A child's conscience must be nurtured. For better or worse, parents provide the most powerful example of what is due to society, and what is due to self."

ABOUT THE GUEST: Andy William Frew teaches at Community Preparatory School, a private school in Providence, RI, whose mission is to enable minority and low-income children to succeed in a college-preparatory program. A former mental health worker, Frew has also taught school in Maine, Cuttyhunk, and inner-city Detroit, and has seen both the positive and negative effects of peer pressure on his students. He is a thoughtful media guest willing to adopt a hard line on the need for adults to take responsibility for children's moral education.

THE INVISIBLE SEAM, by Andy William Frew
(Moon Mountain Publishing, $15.95) is available in bookstores nationwide; locally at Borders, Barnes & Noble, College Hill Bookstore, and Books on the Square; and direct from the publisher at: 1-800-353-5877 or www.moonmountainpub.com