REBTOZ

It’s useful for children to be taught about the value of hanging in there when the going gets tough. The act of doing the hard stuff is driven by the belief that ‘I can hang tough in tough situations.’ This thinking becomes habitual the more the child negotiates difficult situations successfully. Teachers and parents can help their young charges develop this very important capability in a fun way. Read this story to your students about Mr. Chin.   Let me introduce Mr. Chin. He is married to Mrs. Chin. They live in a house in a place called ChiniChinChin. They are the Chins from ChiniChinChin and they have a problem. Mr. Chin gives in. Mr. Chin would start jobs around the house and he would get tired and not finish them.   He would say ‘I give up’ and he would have a rest and fall asleep. He dug half a hole in the garden and built half a shed. He mowed half the lawn and shaved half of his beard. He did look funny! Mrs. Chin said, ‘Have you finish...

Unconditional Self Acceptance (USA) protects us from the slings and arrows that life tests us with. It is how we deal with adversity that is key to remaining strong and purposeful in living our lives productively. USA affords us a degree of psychological resilience and hence is a very useful 'habit of believing' to teach our students. How do you teach this? This questions has been addressed in previous posts and here is another idea to think about.  The cartoon character BatFink could protect himself by deflecting bullets with his 'wing shield.' Psychological resilience is a little like having a protective invisible shield that will allow factual and reasonable information through but will reject those things that are untrue and harmful. Unconditional Self Acceptance helps students understand that whilst they will experience failure and rejection, they themselves can never be failures or rejects. Their positive traits, characteristics and capabilities can't be can...