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Have a Go Spaghettio! Whatever you say it is, it isn’t!

Don Hoffman, cognitive scientist, would say that the labels or words one might ascribe me are not me. Similarly, my ideas about my self are but representations of who I think I am. I can do good but that doesn’t make me good, how one esteems me is not me either. If I unconditionally accept myself, I don’t need others to approve of me, though I might prefer that they did.

The Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy is designed to teach young learners that the ideas and beliefs they construct about themselves are not them. Even Einstein, it is said, argued that he was not nor could he be a genius. He said he had exceptional aptitudes in some areas but was lacking in many others so how could he be perfect as the word genius might imply?

It would be useful to convey the message to students at every opportunity that what they do and how others might esteem them, is not them. If teachers can feedback to the six Have a Go Spaghettio! Success Helper capabilities they are doing the following:

·       Separating the person from the action/opinion of others

·       Teaching unconditional self, other and life acceptance

·       Reinforcing Success Helper behaviours and connecting them to the Success Helper/Brain Friend thinking that informs those actions

·       Developing the child’s capacity to manage frustration e.g., to de catastrophise

·       Helping students develop internal locus of control

Have a Go Spaghettio! provides the educator with six colour coded behaviours or personal qualities, (competencies, capabilities) to teach to and to feedback to in daily interactions. A Success Helper choice or behaviour is underpinned by Success Helper thinking/beliefs and this too is reinforced via the Have a Go Spaghettio! language used.

It is useful to understand the relationship between Alfred Korzybskis General Semantics theory and Albert Ellis’ ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance and educators will appreciate how these theories influence and inform the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy. This video considers this relationship and explains how it underpins the Have a Go Spaghettio! approach to social, emotional, and behavioural wellbeing.

Have a Go Spaghettio! Give It a Try Banana Pie!

 #earlychildhood #GeneralSemantics #Counselling #education #HaveaGoSpaghettio!


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