Moral Kombat 6 Sample: Defensive Driving (Student Manual)

Participant’s Manual

© 2001, 2016 by Carrie Marchant & FLP. All Rights Reserved.

Page i

Let’s begin by distinguishing between PERSONAL VALUES and UNIVERSAL (world-wide) VALUES. It is important that we don’t cross over into PERSONAL VALUES such as your personal beliefs about matters like abortion, homosexuality, or the legalization of marijuana, etc. when talking about a value system. We would never want to say that these particular values were UNIVERSAL. These are beliefs that are very personal to some people, and we all have a right to our personal beliefs.

There is not any “right” moral choice to many of these questions because they could be based on many factors such as your religion, upbringing, ethnic belief, etc. However, whether something is a basic right or wrong, whether it is ethical, whether it is universally accepted (or expected everywhere)...now that is another thing. These value choices are UNIVERSAL ETHICAL STANDARDS that we all can agree upon regardless of our race, religious faith, cultural background, or how much money someone has. © 2001, 2016 by Carrie Marchant & FLP. All Rights Reserved. Page 14

A volunteer will read the following statement:

“Illogical Thinking” does not accurately reflect reality.

To survive life’s greatest difficulties, we must learn to see life clearly. We need to realize that although we may not be able to control everything that happens outside of us, we can control how we react, what we think, feel, do, and say. No one can force us to believe things that we don’t want to believe, or behave in ways we don’t want to behave, unless we give them control over us. We have so much—too much—to live for, and only we can make and stick to the decision to keep control over ourselves.

We need to begin to realize that everything we do begins in our thought processes. In other words, our actions don’t become our actions until we think about it. Located in some place in our mind— our thoughts become beliefs. Then, we begin to act on our beliefs.

This is what we are looking at in this session. REBT or “Logical Thinking” is a part of the cognitive behavioral approach. Cognitive basically means relating to thought processes.

One thing we want to do from the very beginning is learn to quit making excuses, quit blaming others and other situations for our problems. Most of all, get rid of negative, stinking thinking by starting to think logically. © 2001, 2016 by Carrie Marchant & FLP. All Rights Reserved.

Page 39

At the end of every day, if you have written a check or used your ATM card, balance your account right then and there. 

Every few days go on-line or call the bank. (Most banks have an 800 number you can call to reconcile your accounts).



Reconciling a banking account may seem overwhelming, but it is really quite simple. Check to see what your current balance is. See which checks or ATM charges have gone through. If all the checks you have written and all ATM charges have gone through the bank, your balance stays the same. If they have not, subtract the amount of the missing ones from your current total so you now have a reconciled balance. Pretty simple, huh?



Never write a check if the money is not in there—no matter what!

People often get in trouble by writing a check on money that they “know” is supposed to be in the bank on a certain day. Things can and do go wrong. Therefore, never write the check until you know the money is “safely” in the bank.



Understand any account or ATM charges that come directly out of your account and know exactly when they come out of your account.



If you allow automatic withdrawals from your account, you must memorize exactly when they come out of your account and balance your checking account on that day.



Avoid having people hold checks for you; because when the time comes, you may not have the money available for the withdrawal.



Don’t use a place that “advances” you cash against a future check.

They charge you interest and you may not have the money when you need to pay it back.

 Please note: If you understand how to use Microsoft Excel, you could use it to keep track of all banking and spending transactions. Here is a sample of one month in the life of perhaps a typical teen with a new job and his or her first checking account:

© 2001, 2016 by Carrie Marchant & FLP. All Rights Reserved.

Page 84