Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 2, Session 3: Making Decisions | Page 57 of 127Trainer Material 1: Ideas for Using PAUSE
Use this page to make suggestions for how the small groups of participants might use PAUSE to make decisions in the
sample situations.
- Hani is walking home from school with his two friends, Raouf and Ashraff. As they get
close to the corner shop, Raouf and Ashraff start talking about stealing some snacks.
They tell Hani that he should distract the shopkeeper. In another few minutes they will
be outside the shop.
Pause: Hani must decide whether to help his friends to do something illegal.
Ask: Help his friends; Don’t help his friends; Walk away; Change the subject.
Understand: Stealing has serious consequences with the law; Hani could lose his friends; Hani could
challenge his friends to be better people.
Select: Head: It’s not logical to face the consequences of theft; Heart: Hani wants his friendships;
Hands: Hani’s family may be disgraced; Hope: It’s hard to see how theft would fit with
Hani’s long-term goals.
Evaluate: If Hani does not help the boys, he will be in a good position to see whether Raouf and
Ashraff are the kinds of people he wants as friends. - Mona and Sylvia are best friends. Sylvia always seems to have the latest gossip about
other people. Mona thinks it’s interesting to hear this information but sometimes Sylvia
says things that are mean and hurtful. The other day Sylvia was very critical about
another good friend of Mona’s. Mona is beginning to think that Sylvia doesn’t want her
to have any other friends.
Pause: Why is gossip hurtful to other people? How can gossip come back and hurt Mona?
Ask: Mona can ask Sylvia not to gossip; Mona can change the subject; Mona can tell Sylvia why she
doesn’t like gossip.
Understand: Sylvia might get mad or not want to be friends with Mona; Mona might lose
friendships with other people.
Select: Head: Gossip hurts others; Heart: I know it doesn’t feel good when people gossip about me
so it probably doesn’t feel good to them either; Hands: Gossip could hurt other friendships;
Hope: Mona probably does not want to hurt other people over the long term.
Evaluate: Mona can try confronting Sylvia once and see what happens. - Marco’s mother is expecting him to come directly home after going to the store for her.
Passing by the football field, Marco sees all of his friends having fun playing a game.
They call to him to join them. It wouldn’t matter if he played for a few minutes, would
it?
Pause: Should Marco stop to play with his friends?
Ask: Stop and play; Go straight home; Go home then return in a few minutes to play; Plan to play
with friends another time.