Nobody's Perfect: A Story For Children About Perfectism

Emma struggles with trusting herself in front of the entire class. Because of this, she is not able to prove that she can in fact read fluently to the class. Emma’s current academic goal would be, “Given reading passages at the fifth-grade level, Emma will read fluently.” In order for one to reach this, the student must recognize these three things. First, how to improve their self-esteem. Second, it is okay to fail. Third, to try their best and do it proudly no matter how unique they feel. It seems as though the issue does not fall in the child’s ability to read, but instead, their ability to speak up. This can reach across the entire population of the classroom. Students, children and even adults will feel inferior to others and in return

they are not confident in their abilities. This series of lessons will be focused on building self-esteem while using a series of books so that throughout the lessons, the student is casually practicing their reading abilities. First, the instructor will focus on building the class’s self esteem. The first story will be The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. This story is about different sneetches with stars on their belly and those that lack them. Those that lack them feel inferior to their star-bellied friends. This can be a silly story to read as a class, but after, the teacher can include an activity to incorporate the plot. The student will stand in a circle. Every other student will receive a post-it-note star. The teacher will start with the ball and pass it to a star, and tell them a positive trait they hold. Next, the star-student must pass it to a non-star student and also state a positive trait about them. By the end of the activity each student will have heard a quality their classmates respect about them.

After as a class, a discussion will be held to discuss the feeling related to these comments. The teacher can write those feelings on the board so the students can realize how much they care about each other. The second lesson of this topic would be the fact that it is okay to fail. This lesson is centered around the story Nobody’s Perfect: A Story for Children About Perfectionism by Ellen Flanagan Burns. This story fights against perfectionism and teaches kids that is in fact okay to fail. With this book comes an activity that can become quite personal. The students will be asked to start a journal. In this journal they may add some of their concerns with failure and how they will battle it. The final lesson is on the topic to always try your best, do it proudly and relish in your uniqueness. For this final lesson, the student will watch a short Disney clip called Partly Cloudy which does in fact show the kids that being different is okay. Sometimes it is nice to stand out, and be proud of who you are. This three-day session may take up a few days of learning, but it is definitely worth it as the students become more comfortable with who they

are. The students are challenged to look deep into their needs as a student. In this case, Emma may realize that she is a brilliant girl, and it is okay to show her peers that she is. The goal of this lesson is to build a welcoming community where the students are aware of the lack of judgment they will receive from their peers (Elementary School Counseling: Self Esteem, 2017).