Have a Go Spaghettio! introduces the REBT theory of psychotherapy to the early childhood young constructivist. General Semantics also comes into play which says that the map is not the territory, the word is not the thing or person. Have a Go Spaghettio! teaches how to think in self-helpful, Brain Friend/Success Helper thinking ways via the ABC of REBT and General Semantics theory.
Ms Smithers is a Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator. She has
learned about the ABC of REBT, and she wants her young constructivist learners
to know all about it.
In the first presentation we considered the ABC of REBT, and
how it informs the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy. The idea is to take REBT from
the rooms of the therapist specialist to the excitement and energy of the early
childhood school and classroom settings. Albert Ellis said the future of
psychotherapy was in the classroom and here we are! Good on you Ms Smithers!
Ms. Smithers
Slide 2 introduces to additional components of the ABC of
REBT and that’s the D and E parts. So were back at school and Ms Smithers is
about to introduce these two important additions to the ABC of REBT.
Ms Smithers teaches the children that A is an Adverse
happening, something we don’t want to happen, that C is how we feel and behave
as a consequence of the happening, A. This message becomes a feature of daily
classroom discourse, as the Ms Smithers refers to things constantly like:
How do you feel?
I feel worried?
What happened?
What are/were you thinking?
What was Brain Bully saying?
I think BB is trying to give me a big headache!
Now what would Brain Friend say?
Etc.
This classroom chat, led by Ms Smithers, is reinforcing the
ABC of REBT ideas, reminding children that:
Things happen.
We feel and act in response to what happens.
We interpret what’s happening, we think about it.
We question whether what we are thinking is true or not.
We reconsider, rethink, and reset what we think, to a Brain
Friend/Success Helper/rational setting because we challenged the veracity of Brain
Bully thinking at B, what we think.
Rethinking, reconsidering, challenging what we think is true
is called DISPUTATION of irrational beliefs, the D of the ABC of REBT.
Ms Smithers hones her Have a Go Spaghettio! knowledge and
practice as she becomes a competent Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator. And
her students are learning about the ABC of REBT in their daily learning. She
Has a Go Spaghettio!
In Ms. Smithers the classroom
In slide 3 we consider the thoughts of the children in
presentation 1, where at B of the ABC of REBT, they thought:
I’m dumb!
I’m hopeless.
No one likes me.
I need them to like and approve of me, thought Ms Smithers
about her colleagues.
D is the process of challenging or reviewing what we are
thinking at B. In the classroom Ms Smithers might model this so:
“I feel sad girls and boys. Not just a little bit but a lot.”
“Let’s check the ET,” says the children.
“You might ask did something happen? Who will ask me?” Says
Ms Smithers.
“What am I thinking? Is it Brain Friend or Brain Bully
thinking? “she continues.
Ms Smithers says, “I think people I like must like me and if
they don’t it means I’m not likeable and no one likes me! But they don’t have
to even if I’d like them to. I do have some friends which is OK. What do you
think people?”
“Not everyone will like you Ms Smithers, but some do. We
like you.”
“I feel better now because I’ve changed the way I think. My
new thinking rule is I would like everyone to like me, but they don’t have to
and that’s OK. And if some people don’t like me doesn’t mean I’m not OK. I will
write that in my daily journal. Thanks everyone.”
This kind of modelling and classroom chatter is a constant
reference to how we think, how we feel and act are connected.
So D is when we rethink dispute our BB thinking, question
and challenge what might be Brain Bully thinking that is making BB feelings and
BB behaviours.
Ms Smithers has been doing some homework and has learned
about some questions she can introduce into classroom discourse. This set of
questions suggested by General Semantics theory is used by Ms Smithers when
talking to students about the ABC of REBT. She asks:
“What do you mean?” (when you say you’re dumb?)
“How do you know?” (why do you think this?)
“What have you left out?” (why things show you that this is
not true)
The children hear this every day. Ms Smithers ‘gives it a try banana pie!’
Slide 4
But wait, there’s more! What does E represent? E is Effective
new belief. Teacher Ms Smithers has identified that her Brain Bully belief that
everyone should like her is not helpful. She has friends who do like her, and
she is always OK. She feels better now. She knows when Brain Bully is at work
because she begins to feel down and she says to the children, “I have to check
my thinking. What are the three questions?”
They say in unison:
“What do you mean?
How do you know?
What have you left out?”
“Right on says Ms Smithers. Get lost Brain Bully,” she says.
“Get lost Brain Bully they all say.”
Ms Smithers used to think:
“I’m only OK if people I like, like me.”
She now thinks:
“I’m OK even if some people may not think I’m OK.”
She practices this belief and reminds herself daily and
articulates her new way of thinking to the children aloud to communicate to
them that:
“BB thinking makes BB feelings and behaviours.
I can change my BB thinking to Brain Friend thinking.
I can practice my BF thinking.”
Ms Smithers new Effective belief is, ‘I don’t need you to like me for me to like myself.’ In other words, Ms Smithers prefers rather demands that others should like her. She no longer believes that she needs others to like her for her to know she is OK.
“Remember to practice your ABC of REBT. Practice your Have a
go Spaghettio! thinking!” Ms Withers says.
The ABC of REBT tells us that what we think about our
selves, others, and the world we live in, is our version of what we think is
true. The map is not the territory, the word is not the thing, they just
represent what we think is real or true.
What others think of us is not us. Brain Bully thinking like
‘I’m dumb’ is a falsehood because I am not the word!
Stay tuned for presentation 3 of the ABC of REBT and Have a go Spaghettio! where we consider all that we’ve learned in presentation 1 and 2 and apply it in relation to the adventures of a particular book character, as we track and analyse what’s happening according to the ABC (and D and E!) of REBT!
Ms Smithers says, “Give it a try banana pie! Do your best, lemon zest!”
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