Very occasionally, I write a poem. Usually they're short, spare and lacking in hooptedoodle, recycling a small number of words. But under the influence of creating rhymes for improvised songs, I'm trying my hand at pacier verse for children.
This is the text for a picture book that I'm working on. It's quite didactic for me, but that's because it promotes a fairly indisputable bit of psychology: that it is better for your learning, achievement and happiness to recognises that intelligence is more a matter of effort and practice than raw talent.
The idea stems from an aside in Carol Dweck's book, "Mindset", that the problem with "The Hare and the Tortoise" is than nobody wants to be a slow, plodding, methodical tortoise.
After I've finished my current minibook on strategies for getting children involved in classroom discussions, my next is going to be on growth mindset teaching, tied into this story.
Here's the PDF, in which I've included some background in case you happen to be/know a literary agent or children's publlisher. Haven't decided whether to pursue conventional publishing or to find an illustrator and do a kickstarter to fund the printing.
I have just enough insight from occasional winter blues to be impatient with those who expect people with depression to just "pull themselves together". A while after I wrote this, I heard a Radio 4 programme about a website that is a similar but serious idea.
