REBTOZ

A lot of meaning in so few words and that was the unique capability of Seuss, to condense a lot into a little. But what does this mean?  Our ‘me-ness,’ what or who we believe we are is as varied and unique as a fingerprint or an intricate snowflake. Our children I believe do as Seuss did; cram a lot into a little. They process the messages they receive and make logical deductions about what these messages mean. They determine how worthy they are as people according to the sense they make of their experience. They are constructing their reality of who they are, parsing out what makes sense to them from the stuff that is non-sense. What happens when the non-sense makes sense and the sense is nonsense? And what are they missing out when condensing so much information into a one-word meaning - good, bad, smart, ugly etc? Who or what is the ‘me’ beyond the one word label we assign our person hood? Seuss again says: “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fanta...

Words matter. Words are little units of meaning which when put together build sentences that enable people to communicate with each other. Words do matter and it is important to use words wisely as they can be received by others in ways that can be harmful. They can be construed as offensive either because there is an obvious intention to offend or the receiver has misread the message. Words can be used inappropriately with little thought for how they may be received by others. If intentional the goal is to inflict discomfort on another person, to cause harm. Some would consider this OK, that free speech is a democratic right; we have the right to say things that people find offensive. It can also be said that people have the right to feel offended, that it’s a choice, a decision that one makes. The degree of offense taken will vary from person to person. Some will feel more hurt than others i.e. the offender is not causing the strength of offense to the other person entire...

I've been slack! Well not slack entirely as I've been on holiday for the past eight weeks but I haven't posted a post since my last post which was posted a while ago! Hence page views are down. Way on down! So this is just a shortish item to revive this blog from its comatose torpor. Mental health is the main topic of conversation of REBTOZ with a focus particularly on Rational Emotive Behaviour Education. REBE attempts to inform educators about counselling therapy theory as it can apply to the teaching context. Why do we act as we do and feel as we do when things happen? It's useful to have a theory to attach our practise to and REBE helps children to understand how their strength of emotion is linked to their own constructed 'thinking rules,' their personal philosophies. So children are philosophers whether they know it or not and in the main they don't know! How would they if no one has taught them that they are? And where do these hab...