Ms Smithers is a Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator. She teaches to the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy based on Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. She teaches her junior primary students that they are constructivists, they make or build the beliefs that inform how they perceive events in their lives. Epictetus said:
"It is not the things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance."
This in turn connects to the persons behavioural and emotional responses to those events i.e., thinking, feeling and behaving are all connected. Ms Smithers knows that if her students understand this, they can learn to regulate how they feel and behave by monitoring how they think about themselves, others and life in general.
"As we think so are we."
Suzy is one of her students and she believes she can do stuff, and through persistence she can achieve her goals and if she doesn’t, she strives to work out how to solve problems. She doesn’t believe in failure, and drawbacks are merely opportunities to learn. She does not equate failure with being a failure, she can neither ‘be’ good or bad, stupid or smart. She accepts herself unconditionally which is a Red Success Helper thinking outlook. Some people learn to believe that they are their failures, and Ms Smithers is alert to this.
"You always—yes, always—accept and respect yourself, your personhood, your being, whether or not you perform well and whether or not other people approve of you and your behaviors." Albert Ellis
Suzy has many strengths and Ms Smithers is aware of these. She recognises that Suzy has a strong sense of her own agency, an internal locus of control where she believes luck has nothing to do with outcomes. Ms Smithers says that Suzy has a Blue Success Helper habit of thinking, where she believes she can determine outcomes in her favour and rarely is it luck that she meets her goals.
"I can try. I'll practice."
She has developed high frustration tolerance, a Purple Success Helper capability, as she believes she can handle difficult challenges, and problems are opportunities to learn.
Suzy is doing well, as her developing belief constructions are Success Helper in nature, rational and self-helpful.
Suzy has many strengths and the Have a Go Spaghettio! framework gives Ms Smithers a tool which she can use to reinforce six personal capabilities which are based on REBT and GS theory.
Suzy decides she wants to make a paper fish. This is her goal and she prepares herself accordingly. She finds some paper and colour pencils and sets about her task. She watches a short instructional video and reads a book on origami her mum gave her. This is Green Success helper thinking at work; preparation, ready for success.
She believes she can achieve her goal and that it will take effort. Setting goals, working hard to reach them reinforces her locus of control, her sense of personal agency and her ability to manage frustration. Her Red Success Helper unconditional self-acceptance is strengthened and enhanced. Suzy believes she can!
She follows instructions attentively, carefully folding the paper and she progresses. She rests a while and thinks about how she’s going. She needs more practice she and will try again later.
Suzy works on her paper fish at lunchtime and she persists; she wants to do a good job and believes it will work out well with more practice.
After a while she thinks that her folds are better, and the fish figure is beginning to take shape. 'I’ll give it another go later,' she says to herself.
And she did, and she did it, coz Suzy Can!
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