Georgia’s first lady visits school
First lady of Georgia Sandra Deal visited LaFayette Middle School on Friday, April 24, to take time with the students participating in the Second Step program.
According to crimesolutions.gov, Second Step is designed to reduce impulsive and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents by increasing their social competency skills. Students are taught to reduce impulsive, high-risk, and aggressive behaviors and increase their socioemotional competence and other protective factors.
Deal arrived at the school about 1 p.m. and was greeted by the Beta Club, Walker County schools superintendent Damon Raines, school board member Dale Wilson, and LMS staff, to name a few.
“I think (Second Step) is a great program to teach middle-schoolers,” Deal said, “especially how to get along with each other and to think about problems and situations and come up with solutions. It’s also a good way to work on groups and have them work together and come up with answers with their partners.”
Deal said it is good for the students to work in these groups because they will eventually be in these situations as they progress.
The LMS students were studying action steps in problem-solving, in which each student in a group chooses a different content area and lesson to explore using a guide list and the group has to represent the content area.
The students at LMS were discussing various social settings and what is the best way to handle these situations — whether the problem could be forgetting to help a friend study, to not inviting every friend over to a party, or failing to do housework.
On Friday the students were working to come up with solutions on how to handle those situations and learn to do it in a graceful kind of way and remember how to handle those situations, Deal said.
“Because this could happen to every child,” she said.
Deal said she believes parents are pleased with Second Step. She said she has not spoken to parents about Second Step herself, but as parents know it can be difficult as a teenager, espe-
cially in middle school as they begin to stretch their wings and become more independent.
Deal said Second Step helps middleschoolers find ways to discuss those situations as they enter the adult world and be able to begin to handle them with adult solutions.
“It’s not a violent way to do things. It’s more of an adult way of talking things out,” she said.
Deal believes Second Step is well-received in the state of Georgia.
The atmosphere of classes Deal has visited in Georgia has been positive when the students are working together, she said.
Deal visited four LMS classes to see how the program is conducted and said she saw the same type atmosphere as the children enjoyed what they were doing and coming up with good answers. She said the students were acting out some of the situations and being cooperative.
The students gave Deal planted impatiens and geranium flowers that were grown in the LMS greenhouse. The eighth-grade art students painted the pot for the first lady as well.