Shame-Based Television
Posted on 29 July 2010
This is a page from my first published book, PUP IN SCHOOL (Crown Books for Young Readers). I created this book because when I was teaching at the wonderful Atrium School in Boston, I noticed that when I wanted to talk about ways we could get along better together in class, using animals rather than people in cartoon scenes went down much better. In a group meeting, if I drew “doggy children” having socially difficult situations, all the children were able to see the behaviors that needed modifying, and they enthusiastically offered all kinds of tips and opinions. But if I were to draw realistic looking children having a hard time getting along in class, the students gathered ’round the drawing board tended to keep quieter and not talk much. They didn’t feel safe enough emotionally to offer solutions to difficult social situations when realistic children were drawn in scenes of social difficulty. But the doggy children got them very involved and animated in discussing how to make these social miseries go away. The scene above is when Rodney Dog learns to try sharing as a way of making friends. (I probably should not have used real children’s names, always felt a bit bad about that). Anyway, I think we as adults are the same, because, who wants to have their faults (or behaviors they’re not aware of) held up as a bad example? Although, our culture seems to be producing a lot of shame-based television these days. The “learn by humiliation” or even just “subject yourself to humiliation” kind of shows are out there, and it reminds me of what the Romans were doing before Rome fell (watch people get killed by lions in the arena).
3 responses to Shame-Based Television
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[...] Source: theinnercoach [...]
This is such a great book. I never get tired of reading it to my grandson and he never gets tired of hearing it. It gets his attention every time. Once he starts pre-school I know he will continue to even get more out of it. I have read it in a pre-school classroom and all the kids were captured by it and really loved it. After the story was over they really got into taking about it. I love the creativity in the book as well. Just love everything about it!
This is a wonderful book for preschoolers! They can relate so well to the characters and they love having this read to them over and over again.