Class Activity: Relationship Axioms

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Goal: Get your students thinking about how to build healthy relationships and avoid common misconceptions about relationships and romance.

Have your students consider each of the following suggested “axioms of relationships.” Ask them if they think they are true. If so, how can they be used to avoid bad relationships and build good ones? If you like, have your students form gender-mixed groups and discuss each axiom. Then have them report to the class. This is the perfect activity to go with your discussions of relationships and maintaining relationships in college.

                           If it is the right relationship, it will work; if it doesn’t work, it isn’t the right relationship.

                           Every bad relationship has warning signs.

                           Having no relationship is better than having a bad relationship.

                           Don’t settle for less than you deserve.

                           Get it right the first time—divorce is hell.

                           You will have the best relationship when you don’t need one—that is, when you are content with your own life, rather than searching for a                            relationship to fill a gap.

                           When it comes to partners in relationships, it is better for the other person to want you more than to need you; it is also better to want than to need                            the other person.

                           If your partner can't handle you at your worst, they don't deserve you at your best.

Source: John N. Gardner and Betsy O. Barefoot, Your College Experience, Twelfth Edition, Instructor's Resource Manual.