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Have a Go Spaghettio! The ABC of REBT Text Analysis – part 3

  The third in the ABC of REBT series, this video applies the ABC of REBT theory considered in the first 2 videos, to text analysis. In effect the ABC can be used as a critical literacy tool and in this instance we look at the situation Franklin the turtle is called to deal with. The ABC theory lends itself well to teaching children that strength of emotion in response to an unwanted happening is connected to how the situation is viewed, perceived. Ms Smithers is across the theory and is doing well in applying it in practice to reinforce the ABC of REBT ideas through the Have a Go Spaghettio! framework. Ms Smithers is a Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator, a Have a Go Spaghettio! – ist, and she is firing on all eight cylinders! We’re back at school; Ms Smithers welcome’s her children and beckons them inside. She’s planned a lesson that will illustrate how a book character deals with a serious and traumatic happening. Ms Smithers is aware that her students sometimes feel very ag...

What is Have a Go Spaghettio!?

Have a Go Spaghettio! is a pedagogy which provides the early childhood educator a way of delivering ideas and principles of psychotherapy to the young constructivist mind. Albert Ellis said a long time ago that the future of psychotherapy is in the school system so that’s Have a Go Spaghettio!’s mission, to help young people learn habits of thinking that will hold them in good stead. clap your hands touch the sky give it a try banana pie! Who is Abert Ellis? He’s the creator of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy which provides the ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance counselling/teaching paradigm. It is the underpinning theory of the Have a Go Spaghettio! approach to social, emotional, behavioural well-being. General Semantics also informs the Have a Go Spaghettio! approach, which posits that ‘the word is not the person’ it intends to define. A personal failing or the opinion of others do not determine the persons entire worth. What is a good self? Is there such a thing?...

Have a Go Spaghettio! The Map and The Territory

If the 'map' (our belief constructions) isn’t the 'territory' (reality) and people believe it is, then there’s a lot of unwarranted emotional and behavioural upset endured by many who believe what they think is reality. This kind of thinking sees life’s twists and turns as major inconveniences that shouldn’t happen. So, if, for example someone doesn’t say thanks when you open the door for them, and you feel the indignation rise within, and you say ‘you’re welcome’ after them, who or what is causing your angst? The answer is that you are! But how? Rational Emotive behaviour Therapy, (REBT), the Stoics, General Semantics and the Buddha say that how we interpret what’s happening has a connection to our emotional and behavioural response. How we interpret what’s happening is related to philosophical belief rules we’ve constructed over time, of which we may not be aware. Consider the scenario above, how might the aggrieved person be thinking at the time, about the inci...

The Rational Emotive Behaviour 'Have a Go Spaghettio!' Educator

  Teachers who employ the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy in their early childhood teaching practice are Rational Emotive Behaviour Educators . The Have a Go Spaghettio! approach to early childhood personal development is based on Albert Ellis' Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy theory (REBT) and his counselling paradigm, the ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance. REBT is influenced by the Stoic Philosophers such as Epictetus, who said that happenings plus our interpretations of those events cause our emotional and behavioural 'upsetness' as Albert Ellis said. But REBT would not have come to be had it not been the work of Alfred Korzybski who created General Semantics theory. He alerted us to the idea of the 'map is not the territory' where our belief constructions (the map), our conceptions about life, are but a virtual representation of reality (the territory). Teachers who teach early childhood student constructivists the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy are Ratio...

Dr. Evil and Ms. Prudence Putty-Nose

Daddy Wasn't There!  is a song featured in the film Gold Member. Mike Myers plays the role of Austin Powers, the James Bond type, man of the moment who has issues about the absentee father who was ‘never there’ at those crucial milestone moments of his formal development. Hence the song Daddy Wasn’t There! Austin had a twin brother, called Douglas Power, aka Dr. Evil who was thought to have died in a car explosion, and was subsequently adopted by a Belgian family who taught him to be evil. How this was done is of course conjecture, but I would suggest that Douglas may have been programmed to believe he was an exceptional type and people, all people, should, must defer to him and his specialness. Dr. Evil is self-absorbed, needs to be admired, and scorns those who do not revere him as he must be. He has a fragile ego and demands that others validate his status as an exceptional human being. So fragile is his ego he must destroy those perceived to be his competitors or enemi...

Ms. Prudence Putty - Nose Sees a Counsellor

  Ms Prudence Putty – Nose went to a counsellor because she was flying off the handle a bit when she didn’t get what she wanted and she lasted one session. The counsellor said that her sense of her own exceptionalism, that she was a better breed of person and that others should see this and act accordingly was the cause of her high anxiety and need of approval. Ms Putty   Nose was affronted by this and could not see how she was responsible for how she felt and behaved and not the furniture, the weather, or the popularity of a teacher peer she despised and she decided that counselling wasn’t for her. She was even resentful of a teacher colleague who had cancer, as her condition was taking away precious attention from her. ‘I wish she didn’t get cancer. It’s not fair,’ she thought. "Cancer envy" is a recognized, complex, and often shame-inducing emotion where individuals may envy the attention, support, or care others receive during a cancer diagnosis.” She went back to her ...

Have a Go Spaghettio! and The Emotional Thermometer

  You Tube Video This presentation introduces or revisits the emotional thermometer or ET for short. EQ or emotional intelligence involves the ability to regulate how we feel and behave so it's useful to alert young people to the idea that how we feel, or the strength of how we feel is not only connected to what happens, the event, but also to our interpretation of what happened. The ET helps young constructivists develop a broader emotional vocabulary that represents various strengths of emotion. Let’s continue. Here we visit again the story of Franklins Bad Day. The day that he believes is bad may not be so, but his fixed ideas or fixed mindset thinking that things should be as he wants them to be, contrives against his emotional and behavioural wellbeing. This story uses the stages of Albert Ellis’ ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance, to analyse a text that will introduce the notion that ‘it isn’t what happens to us that makes us feel and act as we do, but it's how we ...

Why do you whisper?

A teacher colleague was out of sorts it seemed. They had been quiet and reclusive, electing to stay in their classroom because they felt unsafe. They found it hard to come to work and do their job. They were a teacher of high quality and competence, well respected and loved by their students. They were particularly strong in their understanding of children on the autism spectrum and provided highly effective, individualised programs accordingly. A fellow member of staff had taken umbrage at the teachers suggestion that their class move a little quieter around the school so they didn’t disturb others. This was not taken very well, the staff member, whose fragile sensibilities were breeched and who couldn’t handle an adults courteous request spat the proverbial chewy! How dare anyone speak to me like that!  thought the entitled individual and after their little meltdown they went to complain to the acting principal at the time. The acting principal didn’t like the miscreant tea...