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Ms Smithers Speaks with Journalist Mr. Paxton Popoffalot

Mr. P. Popoffalot

Mr Paxton Popoffalot (Mr. P.) has organised an interview with Have a Go Spaghettio! expert and Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator Ms. K. Smithers. She is using her school planning time to accommodate Mr. P. who is a journalist for the local newspaper, What’s Up?

Mr. P: Thanks Ms Smithers. I’ve heard about the Have Go Spaghettio! program you use in your classroom, can you tell us about it.

Ms. S: It’s a Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy based program, which teaches children about the thinking – feeling – doing connection. Albert Ellis, creator of REBT said the future of psychotherapy is in the school system, and we are doing it!

Ms. K. Smithers

Mr. P: Sounds complicated. How is this idea or principle conveyed to your young learners?

Ms S: The key is to make the complex simple and fun. These young constructivists are the architects of their trajectories in life. They can have agency in their deliberations, learn to manage frustration and develop what Albert Ellis calls, unconditional self-acceptance, the idea that self-worth is not contingent on how others might esteem them i.e., they don’t need the approval of others to ‘be’ ok. They can prefer that others treat them well, respectfully and not demand that they should. This is done by the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy, developed by Dr. Bort O’Lozzo in Australia.

As you and I do and have done we carry around in our heads established habits of thinking, believing that inform the decisions we make and drive our behavioural and emotional responses to situations. This is the think-feel-do connection I mentioned before, and outcomes will depend on the quality of our belief rules; are they rational or irrational.

Mr. P: Constructivists? In what sense Ms. K. This suggests your young charges are building things. How does this relate to the think-feel-do trinity you mention?

Ms. S: We want our young people to construct, build a suite of core beliefs that are evidence informed, based on a reasonable assessment of the self, others and life in general. A Have a Go Spaghettio! mindset is made of the following belief rules: 

-          I prefer to get what I want but I know I won’t always

-          I prefer others treated me with respect and courtesy

-          I prefer that things go well for me and life is fair, but this is not realistic

-          I can handle difficult things

-          I unconditionally accept my 'self' 

-          Generally, things aren't so awful that I can’t stand the inconvenience of unwanted  happenings

These are all packaged in the Have a Go Spaghettio! Success Helper Thinking pedagogy

HAVE A GO SPAGHETTIO!

Mr P: Carry on Ms S, this is very interesting. Please go on.

Ms. S: I teach to the six Have a Go Spaghettio! Success Helper competencies highlighted in the visual. These can be referred to as traits, behaviours, capabilities, qualities etc that will help us manage ourselves successfully. Each colour coded capability is underpinned by the Have a Go! REBT rational mindset outlined above. For example, the Blue Success Helper represents the thinking ‘I can try and persist’ and the feelings and behaviours associated with it. It requires a realistic Success Helper habit of thinking which in turn will help them manage frustration levels, strengthen internal locus of control, and add to a person’s unconditional self-acceptance and confidence.

Mr P: So, the Have a Go Spaghettio! approach does what Mr Ellis suggested educators do, that is, to bring psychotherapy theory into classroom practice, to teach children habits of thinking/believing that are helpful. Is that correct Ms Smithers?

Ms S: Yes The Have a Go Approach talks of Success Helper, or Brain Friend thinking and Success Stopper or Brain Bully thinking. We want our young people to know that there is a connection between irrational Brain Bully thinking and extreme, unhealthy negative emotions. They can learn in time to question, challenge and change their thinking habits, to monitor how they feel and behave as they relate to the type of thinking connected to them.

Thanks for your time Ms Smithers.

You’re welcome Mr Popoffalot.

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