Pure & Simple Choice Curriculum

Pure & Simple Choice curriculum is comprised of three video stories of fictional teenagers who all attend the same high school, and whose lives are intertwined over the Junior and Senior years and the year after graduation.   A separate series of the curriculum, Pure & Simple Choice: SMART was developed for those middle or high school aged youth living with learning disabilities.

The curriculum was written by Lois Theis for Pure & Simple Health Education, Inc. beginning in 2004 through 2010.  Keith Cantrell was co-author and Director of Part II. The curriculum engages youthful audiences through storytelling and group interaction and was developed utilizing theories proposed by Erick Erickson on stages of psychosexual/psychosocial development, Albert Bandura’s social cognitive learning, Onalee McGraw’s whole person development, and the theory of reasoned learning.

All actors and extras in the Pure & Simple Choice curriculum are amateur, local teenagers who went through an audition process, and delivered their performances filmed by a local group, Alexander Video Productions.  Parents or other local adults took on any adult roles.

Each series may stand alone or be used in sequence for greatest effect and impact.

Pure & Simple Choice: the first eight episodes tell the story of JC, Mariah, Lisa and Trey, their choices and consequences related to avoiding sexual activity vs. engaging in sexual activity, and the use of alcohol.  Eight lesson plans for viewing the Pure & Simple Choice require scheduling a minimum of 40 minutes for each episode.  The targeted group for the first eight episodes would be 7th grade.

Pure & Simple Choice: Part II: the second eight episodes reveal how the lives of Jamal, Whitney, Tiana and Luke, face similar challenges and choices about whether to be sexually active or not, and having to deal with the consequences of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.  As in the first video story, a tragic event that occurs in Episode 8 of both series will tie together the two groups of friends.   Again, eight lesson plans for viewing Part II will require 40 minutes for each episode, and the targeted group is 8th grade. 

Pure & Simple Choice: REVAMP tells the story of Rashid, Tom, Donisha and Jacinta (friends and classmates to characters in the two earlier series) who deal with the situations in which they find themselves after graduation from high school.  Six lesson plans deal with topics such as depression/suicide, illicit alcohol and drug use, healthy relationships, and sexual assault. The targeted group is 9th or 10th grades.  

Pure & Simple Choice: SMART Middle School or High School versions use the same four lesson plans to explain how young people grow and develop as persons, are responsible to other persons in authority, to appreciate friendships and how to respect the privacy of persons, to show how the choices we make in our relationships have consequences, and the value of connecting with friends of the opposite sex in a true friendship.

Contact our office for information related to cost of training, materials or scheduling: (316) 688-0840 or toll free, (866) 688-0840. 

Curriculum materials were developed through Federal Grant No.’s: 90AE0085 and 90AE0305, Community Based Abstinence Education Program, Administration for Children & Families, Department of Health and Human Services.