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Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis. Illustrated by Laura Cornell
Quick shout out to my Amate roommate Emily for turning me on to this wonderful book! And reading it as a bedtime story with such enthusiasm!
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Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day is a book by Jamie Lee Curtis (yes, the actress). It follows a young girl who expresses that sometimes she feels a variety of things throughout her day and thats ok. With colorful and fun illustrations this book is for all ages! It even has an interactive wheel of different faces we make when we have all of these feelings.
So far I have only used this book with a couple of students in one on one counseling but more and more I realize it needs to be used for a variety of reasons. Personally, bibliotherapy is my favorite because I absolutely love reading. I know its not for every kid but if I can connect with it I know I can use it to get my message out in some way.
The message in this book is that all feelings are OK. You are allowed to feel angry and upset and silly and mean. The important part of the book is that this girl is able to NAME her feelings an important aspect of understanding oneself that many adults even struggle with. At times she feels angry and acts out. I don't condone the practice of being angry all the time but if a child (or adult) can explain that they are angry they are already a step towards talking about what is making them angry and why.
I recently watched a TED Talk (start watching these immediately, my mind is blown after listening to most talks) by Brene Brown who studies vulnerability. She discussed the power of vulnerability and it resonates with my thoughts on sharing emotions. So often we don't allow for kids to feel, we dry tears that need to be shed and we contain anger that needs an outlet. It isn't a surprise we as adults are unable to allow ourselves to feel those very emotions, we are shown that we should cover up the bad and that we should always be happy. Well, no wonder so many students and adults aren't happy! Because for some reason we think we should always be, that its not ok to be vulnerable and feel the emotions we have. Buzz word: overmedicated.
Brown explains that people who have a sense of love and belonging gained these because they first believed they were worthy of love and belonging. (We could argue about where that comes from and how hard it would be for so many students, but lets take her at her word for the moment). Believing they were worthy wasn't the only step, they had to have the courage to be IMPERFECT (i.e. to sometimes feel silly, happy, sad, angry, mean), they leaned into the vulnerability so they could learn from it.
Vulnerability is scary and I avoid it like the plague personally, but I can see its value as a quality to demonstrate to students. And accepting imperfection, woah. Imagine what would happen to our "perfect" society?
So watch her talk here. Order the book here. And I promise to get off my soapbox for the night.
This book fits into this program at my school I am interning at! There is this program about emotional literacy with mood meters. There are 4 color quadrants that the students have to express, name, and place where they are on the mood meter. It is only placed in the school I am at for a "test" run before it is implemented into other schools to see if it is important for the other schools to use this type of "training" (lack of a better word) for the teachers and students. It has its ups and downs, but it works well depending on how the teacher is implementing it in his or her classroom. You nailed it when you said how important it is for the students to be able to NAME their feelings, couldn't have said it better!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this book. I use it often in small group and then do a fun activity at the end. Have you seen my post about craft for feeling faces? http://schoolcounselorscrapbook.blogspot.com/2011/10/currently.html It's just a blip in the post- but it is a HUGE hit with the kids. She has has other great books as well... one day I will own more of them : )
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