Letters from Kids

Dear Educator and Harold,

When I first walked into the Life Education caravan I knew it was a special, important place. From Harold the talking Giraffe, to the stars that lit up the roof, and the friendly smile of the instructor as I walked in the door, Life Education has had a big impact on my life, and I believe it will continue to impact me and the decisions I make throughout my life.

I have attended Life Education for 8 years now and I am confident that from it I have taken away many important messages and life skills. Throughout my time in Life Education I learnt about peer pressure, the importance of self-worth, the magnificence of the human body and more. The knowledge and lessons that I have gathered from my Life Education experience has helped to shape the person that I am today, and my understanding of the world we live in.

I enjoyed Life Education as it was a comfortable, safe and supportive environment, where everyone was equal and there was no right or wrong questions . The instructors were always welcoming and frequently asked for students opinions and ideas.

I am beginning the journey of high school next year, so unfortunately I will have to say goodbye to Harold, the caravan and of course the lovely instructor. However I will not say goodbye to the strong messages that Life Education has taught me, or the precious memories I have from my time in the caravan.

I feel privileged that I was able to experience such a rewarding program, so I sincerely thank the Life Education team for everything they have done, and will continue to do for the future generation.

Dear Educator and Harold,

Ever since Year 1 when I first walked into the door of the Life Education van, it has had a very important and special place in my school life. From the stars on the roof, to a talking giraffe named Harold and the videos we were shown, the whole Life Education process reached my amazements, and those amazements haven't reduced since my first lesson. I have been attending Life Education for 8 years now, and I look forward to those few weeks each year when the van comes to our school, and I know I'm guaranteed to learn valuable lessons and have fun over the next few weeks in the Life Education van.

From learning about friendships at a ripe age, to digestion, the human body, accepting ourselves and drugs and alcohol this year, Life Education has pretty much covered it all. All the knowledge and lessons I've picked up from Life Ed have helped form who I am today and my understanding of me and the world I live in. I know I will take away so many valuable messages with me from Life Ed, and I know I will definitely apply these in highschool and my further future. I know I will need valuable messages such as how to say no to drugs and alcohol, how to deal with pressure, how to create good friendships and even just how to have a good school experience in general, and all of this confidence and knowledge has come from Life Education.

AI3 I am entering the overwhelming world of High School next year, I will have to bid farewell to Life Education, and saying goodbye to Harold, Educator and leaving behind so many valuable memories created in the van will be hard, but at the same time I am grateful for everything Life Education has provided for me. If I had to pick one highlight of the incredible 8 years I have had in Life Ed, it would have to be meeting Harold for the very first time and learning about friendships a few years later.

I still remember how my eyes lit up when I first saw Harold, excitement and amazement rushed through me. I also have a clear memory about learning about friendships a few years later, and without this valuable lesson, I would not have the same attributes I do today! Of course, I have enjoyed every single Life Education lesson, and all of them have importance to me, and the messages will stay strong inside me forever, and I am sure they will come in use in my future. Thank you so much to Corrinne, Harold and the rest of the people behind the amazing Life Education, because without you I wouldn't have had this amazing experience. In a few days time, I will saying my final goodbye to Life Education, but I can truly say, it has been a once in a lifetime experience, that I will never forget.

Dear Educator and Harold,

Hi my name is Charlotte and I loved being involved with Life Education since I was in year 1. I have enjoyed participating and learning about life lessons throughout the years.

I find the purpose of Life Education is to teach kids and teenagers how to make good decisions and to teach us life lessons. Life Education has helped me a lot through the years. I have been through difficult situations  and Life Education has taught me how to live a good life and make good choices.

I have found that a lot of learning has taken place like health and making good choices these have helped me through my 8 years of being involved with Life Education. Through the many years I still have to make good decisions, I will take away a lot of the things that I have learnt from Life Education. I will say NO when I have to. I will keep healthy and I will make good decisions.

My highlight when I was younger was to see Harold because he was my superhero. My highlight now is to learn more and more as I grow and also I love the new system with all the  lights and different  things. I  love how Life Education is just a nice welcoming place to learn. I will miss having fun and learning more and more. I will miss Harold and his amazing karaoke and the fun times. Last but not least I will miss Corrine who has taught me a lot and made learning really fun. Overall over the 8 years of  being involved with Life Education it has been an amazing 8 years of my life.

Dear all life education staff,

Thank you for 8 years of life education. The education has been invaluable to me and has taught me how to make good choices in life. I will miss the life education lessons, but will take on board and remember all it has taught me to help guide myself through college, university and even jobs. I think the purpose of life education is to educate young people on what choices they should take and what the negative effects wrong choices can have on the body. To me it has usually meant a chill session where I don't have to exert myself physically or mentally (apart from the activities like making one hand do something -like patting my head- while the other hand is doing something different- like rubbing my stomach- all at the same time.).

I didn't learn that much on life education because my mother who is a gp (general practitioner) taught me almost everything about the body, the effects that it goes through when it changes, and the effects that drugs can have on it, however the chance to recap on this knowledge, fix errors and learn new little things was very valuable. Life education also made me very curious so I even checked online to see if drug effects were the same as what my mother had taught me and as a result I found out some new things such as how methamphetamine makes you feel like you have bugs under your skin when you sweat it out. Even though I will never do drugs in my life (aside from maybe controlled alcohol consumption when I am old enough as I have seen pictures of people who have done drugs and been affected physically) the video showed me how drugs can impact other people's lives and how a lot of danger can not only come from drugs but can come from people in gangs or other dangerous groups, further sealing my decision not to ever take drugs.

My highlight and in my opinion the most important lesson was the lesson on drugs and their effects on the body and people around you and what think made it effective was the video showing the stories and real lives that were ruined and even lost because of drugs. What I also found interesting was the comparison of drugs to a spider web, as in that some flies (people) fly straight past the web (turn down drugs and get on with their lives),some brush past it and get their wings a little damaged, (some try drugs once but give it up, damaging their bodies a little bit) some fly straight into the web and get out after a long battle, maybe unable to fly fast (some people try drugs for an extended period of time but luckily get out, shortening their lives dramatically) and some flies fly straight into the web and get eaten (some people do drugs and die from them, either from an drug related causes or a dispute/gang problem.)

Dear Educator and Harold,

It's been so much fun going to the caravan all these years; there is a great atmosphere about it. I've really enjoyed being able to go to a different classroom to learn things far different from what we were learning in class. I particularly enjoyed playing the mind games in between breaks, to add even more fun to the lesson.

Every lesson I've found it interesting, and you do such a good job of teaching us about the crucial things about our bodies in such an invigorating way. The main purpose of Life Education is help children choose the right decisions to reach their full potential, and I think Life Education is a great to help children reach that goal, because of the fun learning environment and informative teaching.

Dear Educator & Harold,

I feel that Life Education comes to schools all over New Zealand to provide the students and parents with life skills and gaining knowledge to help them in their future life time. They also help people who are going through drug related problems. Life Education has meant a lot for me over the past 6 years. I have learnt everything from, Friendships to Drugs. I have also enjoyed seeing Life Education succeed, with the new projectors and the magnificent led lights, and also we can't forget Harold the amazing giraffe.

Throughout my 6 years of Life Education I have learnt many things. With those many thing I have also taken on heaps and heaps of life skills which are sure to help me during my lifetime. Some of the main things that I have take on have been - Learn to say No before you learn to say YES, how to be a good friend, all the different types of drugs and all about the human body.

One of the best things I personally learnt with Life Education is about drugs because that to me has been the most involving lesson of the 6 years of Life Education I have had. I am definitely going to miss Life Education next year, but I definitely think that I have learnt a lot of good life skills, that I am going to take with me everywhere I go.

Hello Life Education Staff, Magazine Editor and Harold,

For the past 7 years I have enjoyed Life Education very much. I think the purpose of Life Education is to educate, raise awareness and inform all school years from Year 1 - Year 8. Life Education to me has meant that I can make the right choices when I should and shouldn't. It has taught me to be careful in the outside world as life is not all "pink clouds and fairies".

The learning that has taken place in my years were friendships and bullies, the food pyramid, making the right choices, the body, the brain, alcohol/smoking and this year we are currently learning about drugs. I will definitely take away all of the information and advice that Life Education has given to me. The most important information that I will take away with me to college and throughout my career would definitely have to be all the information about drugs, alcohol and smoking of all kinds.

My all time highlight would have to be looking at the stars and seeing Harold for the first time. I was so excited and it made me feel like the happiest girl in the world. I am very much going to miss everything. It really does suck that we can't be really well educated in a fun way.

Thank you very much for all your help as I really appreciate it.

Dear Life Education,

Life Education has been a great addition to school life. Not only is it extremely helpful, but myself and a lot of other classmates, it's always exciting to go to, for younger kids to older ones.

When learning about drugs and the effects of taking them, they one of the most interesting lesson I've had. It was very touching to see the video of young New Zealanders, and how drugs have destroyed their lives, and I think that video will definitely help stop anyone who watches it from taking drugs.

We also learnt about social behaviours, which I found very helpful when learning about peer pressure, because that can be a common situation that I face. We were also taught about bullying, and how to avoid it. At the school that I went to, we had no bullies. But since the Life Education is active across the whole of New Zealand, some children who are being bullied could learn a lot from Life Education, which I think is pretty amazing.

In our slightly younger years in the Life Education caravan, our topic was about the human body, and after the lessons we were given activity booklets for us to work on. This proved to be a great method for us to continue our knowledge outside of the caravan. Our recent lessons have been focused on the devastating effects of harmful drugs. I think in the long run, these lessons will prove to be one of, if not the most important trips to the giraffe's caravan. I really thank you for giving us the opportunity to be careful around drugs. It's something a normal teacher couldn't really get into our heads.

I'm very humbled by your kindness. Thank you so much for you teaching.