REBTOZ

A teacher colleague was out of sorts it seemed. They had been quiet and reclusive, electing to stay in their classroom because they felt unsafe. They found it hard to come to work and do their job. They were a teacher of high quality and competence, well respected and loved by their students. They were particularly strong in their understanding of children on the autism spectrum and provided highly effective, individualised programs accordingly. A fellow member of staff had taken umbrage at the teachers suggestion that their class move a little quieter around the school so they didn’t disturb others. This was not taken very well, the staff member, whose fragile sensibilities were breeched and who couldn’t handle an adults courteous request spat the proverbial chewy! How dare anyone speak to me like that!  thought the entitled individual and after their little meltdown they went to complain to the acting principal at the time. The acting principal didn’t like the miscreant tea...

I wrote a post call BAD,  Breaking Approval Dependence  about a teachers journey to unconditional self-acceptance, where their own self approval eventually held sway over the need for others to esteem them. They had identified their errant, irrational way of thinking about their  self , challenged its veracity and began to rebuild the kind of healthy, rational, self that would hold them in good stead, unconditional self-acceptance.  Our early childhood constructivists are making sense of the world they live in. Ideas about  self  are formulating in their young minds and what they believe about themselves or their  self  will impact their emotional and behavioural wellbeing now and into the future. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and General Semantics (GS) theories are used in counselling practice, where the individual is called upon to examine the personal philosophies that inform what they do and how they emote especially in ...

Alfred Korzybski of General Semantics theory said,   ‘ the map is not the territory’ and ‘ the word is not the thing.’ A word may label a thing but it isn’t the thing itself, and a word used to describe a person is not the person themselves. To believe so is unsane according to General Semantics theory i.e., it is not a fair representation of the real world and can cause emotional and behavioural angst! A persons map of me e.g., their opinion of me, is not the territory i.e., it is not, does not define me in a global sense. To agree I am what they call me, is to deny the fact that I am many things and to abstract one from the many and believe I am that, would be an irrational belief. How do young people develop the irrational idea that they can be dumb, smart, or cute? When a child receives the message that they are   e.g., smart how might that message be received? The child, as constructivist, may interpret such feedback to mean that they are the word smart . Ho...

The Have a Go Spaghettio! Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator works in the classrooms of schools. I consider all people working with students in our schools as educators but for me special kudos goes the classroom operators, the people at the chalk face, those on the front line. The role of the classroom educator is a complex and challenging one; teacher, counsellor, mentor, role model and the list goes on. For those lucky enough to have a had positive connection with teachers on their journey they are fortunate indeed. Behaviour management can suggest that students need to be managed or told how they should and shouldn’t behave and some children need close guidance in this regard but the end goal is to help them self-regulate and decide for themselves how they might behave according to the thinking rules they are formulating or have formulated. The six Have a Go colour coded Success Helper/Brain Friend competencies that are outlined in this video on the Have a Go Spaghettio! chart, co...

Ms. Vivienne Ayshus arrived at her new school with vim and vigour. Ms. Viv, as she preferred to be called, hit the ground running and she was true to her nickname, ‘Vivacious Viv.’ She presented as bright and bubbly and her students responded to her in a very positive way. Behaviour was never an issue as her students had what seemed, unconditional positive regard for her, and many would say how much they looked forward to coming to school each day. She smiled often, and her dangly earrings would catch the sunlight and sparkle like she did. Not only did the students like her, but the parents did also, as they knew that their children would have a great day at school with Ms. Viv as they would report on returning home at the end of the day. Many of her teacher colleagues also appreciated the value she added to the working environment. Ms Viv was an asset to the school and education, so you’d think it would be onward an upwards from here. Surely a person of this calibre would become...

Have a Go Spaghettio! Counselling In an ideal teaching and learning world there would be a qualified counsellor in each school across all year levels from preschool to year 12. However, it would be rare to find a qualified counsellor in the junior primary setting, but that aside, what would a counsellor be charged to do in the scheme of early childhood things? Albert Ellis, creator of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, said the future of psychotherapy is in the school system. What did he mean by that? He was suggesting that teachers can help students understand why they act and feel as they do according to the ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance counselling paradigm. What are their constructed beliefs about themselves, others and how the world works? And what can they do about self-defeating and destructive, deeply held irrational beliefs and how do they build new, robust and healthy rational ones? By what means do we bring a model of psychotherapy into the early childhood teaching an...