Supposing you’re a new kid in school. It’s recess and there are some

kids on the swings. There’s an empty swing that you go to get on. Then

one of the kids says to you “Hey, you can’t swing here. Get lost!” What would you do?

    Well, you could get afraid and sad and discouraged, and do what the

kid says, and not get on the swing. You could sigh and walk away,

feeling sad, say to yourself how nobody likes you, and feel sorry for

yourself and be all alone, that day and maybe every day. That’s called

being passive. Is that what you’d do?  

    Or, you could feel really hurt, and then angry and lose it, and start

shaking and screaming: “I hate you! I hate all of you! I hope you all die!

I’m gonna put poison in your chocolate milk. I’m gonna KILL you!”

And you could even try to throw the swing at them (except it’s on the

chain), or have a fight that day, and maybe every day. And if you even

won the fight and all the other kids were scared of you, you’d still feel

really hurt and hurt others, until you’d be the one that says “Hey! You

can’t swing here. Get lost!” That’s called being aggressive. Is that what

you’d do?

     Or, you could stay really coo-l, and  look the kid in the eye who told

you that you can’t swing here, and sit down on the swing anyhow and

say: “It’s a free country. I can swing here if I wanna.” and then sorta

smile at them, and start to swing.....

     You could swing that day, and maybe every day, and talk to them,

and make some friends, ‘cause they’d respect you, just like you

respected yourself. That’s called being assertive. Is that what you’d do?

    Passive. Aggressive. Assertive. So if one of the kids says to you:

“Hey, you can’t swing here. Get lost!” (or something else like that)

what would you do?