Sticks and stones-really?

According to Wikipedia:

Quote "Sticks and Stones" is an English language children's rhyme. It persuades the child victim of name-calling to ignore the taunt, to refrain from physical retaliation, and to remain calm and good-natured. Unquote

I thought I would share with you my own insights on this seemingly innocuous nursery rhyme which has become so entrenched in our highly flawed "received wisdom"

With my background in Education and EQ (Emotional Intelligence) I often wondered about the supposed "truth" enshrined in these words. Countless encounters with students and some adults always seemed to point to the opposite. In point of fact, many were highly intelligent and physically healthy but suffered considerably from poor self images and were hampered in their academic progress by limiting beliefs! A kind of emotional ill health seemed to pervade their thinking and ensued in general low morale and low esteem, which created a situation in which they became their own worst enemy.

Many regarded themselves as failures and felt rejected by their peers. They often became emotionally or socially disconnected and my heart reached out to them in their self made, lonely prisons. As a direct consequence they often functioned below their actual potential. I wondered what had caused them to become like this and realized that apart from their own poor self judgement in the face of personal situations and experiences of apparent failure, often people in positions of authority like over critical parents were responsible for reinforcing the damage. Some teachers for example...repeated the old self-fulfilling prophecy .......you will never be any good at Math.....and so on!

As a result It proved difficult for these students to change their thinking and it took a lot of effort for them to admit that the harsh words of so-called "authority" figures caused deep and lasting emotional wounds!

In more recent times advances in research in the fields of EQ and Psychology have begun to show just how much emotional ill health has been brought about by the injudicious use of words!

I believe that Dr Guy Winch, (not a real doctor lol) deals with this issue in a most inspiring way and after watching his TED talk, I am now more than ever optimistic that we will be embarking on a new era of enlightenment! He has a powerful message for us all!

"Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone was psychologically healthier"

I know all fellow WA members will benefit from his talk! This is motivational stuff on steroids!

http://goo.gl/OQNsaZ

~Arthur