I saw an article about new ways of teaching preschool classes. You begin the day by talking about how the kids feel. I’m not going to link to it, because it was over the top. But it did say that all the children in the example school ended up in tears, after a few minutes of discussion.

I went looking for a way to describe what was going on and found this article from 2022.

“Today, every parent and caregiver should be in tune with how their children are feeling emotionally. One of the most effective ways to understand how children are doing is to simply engage them in conversation. But starting those conversations and keeping them going is not always easy.” The Columbus Dispatch… 5/11/22

Though I don’t recommend it, here’s a link to a ‘professional’ paper about talking to young children … https://extension.psu.edu/programs/betterkidcare/early-care/tip-pages/all/talking-with-preschoolers-about-emotions.

This is not a new idea. But it has problems.

Herewith some excerpts from the book, Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield (Fisher), written in 1916. If the book is unfamiliar here is the setup. Elizabeth Ann is an orphan who was taken care of, by first one side of her family, and then the other, when the first group has to deal with tuberculosis in one of the caregivers. Her first caregiver, Aunt Frances, reads all the very latest books about how to bring up little girls.

Aunt Frances shared in all Elizabeth Ann’s doings and even in all her thoughts. She was especially anxious to share all the little girl’s thoughts, because she felt that the trouble with most children is that they are not understood, and she was determined that she would thoroughly understand Elizabeth Ann down to the bottom of her little mind.
…besides, if she did not urge Elizabeth Ann to tell it, she was afraid the sensitive, nervous little thing would “lie awake and brood over it…
… Elizabeth Ann dreamed sometimes that she was dead and lay in a little white coffin with white roses over her. Oh, that made Aunt Frances cry, and so did Elizabeth Ann. It was very touching. Then, after a long, long time of talk and tears and sobs and hugs, the little girl would begin to get drowsy, and Aunt Frances would rock her to sleep in her arms, and lay her down ever so quietly, and slip away to try to get a little nap herself before it was time to get up. (1916)

Aunt Frances believed in sympathizing with a child’s life, so she always asked about every little thing, and remembered to inquire about the continuation of every episode, and sympathized with all her heart over the failure in mental arithmetic, …… Sometimes in telling over some very dreadful failure or disappointment Elizabeth Ann would get so wrought up that she would cry. This always brought the ready tears to Aunt Frances’s kind eyes, and with many soothing words and nervous, tremulous caresses she tried to make life easier for poor little Elizabeth Ann. ….. You’ll always tell Aunt Frances everything, won’t you, darling?” Elizabeth Ann resolved to do this always, even if, as now, she often had to invent things to tell.

Did I say 1916?

[Elizabeth Ann] had heard her elders say about her so many times that she could not stand the cold, that she shivered at the very thought of cold weather

Especially, when she gets sent to Vermont, in January, to be taken care of by the other side of her family. Here’s an excerpt when she is picked up at the train station by her Uncle Henry and they start home in a horse and wagon.

She would fall, she would roll under the wheels and be crushed to … She looked up at Uncle Henry with the wild, strained eyes of nervous terror which always brought Aunt Frances to her in a rush to “hear all about it,” to sympathize, to reassure. (1916)

Uncle Henry’s reaction …

Uncle Henry looked down at her soberly, his hard, weather-beaten old face quite unmoved. “Here, you drive, will you, for a piece?” he said briefly, putting the reins into her hands, hooking his spectacles over his ears, and drawing out a stubby pencil and a bit of paper. “I’ve got some figgering to do. …
Elizabeth Ann had been so near one of her wild screams of terror that now, in spite of her instant absorbed interest in the reins, she gave a queer little yelp. She was all ready with the explanation, her conversations with Aunt Frances having made her very fluent in explanations of her own emotions. She would tell Uncle Henry about how scared she had been, and how she had just been about to scream and couldn’t keep back that one little … But Uncle Henry seemed not to have heard her little howl, or, if he had, didn’t think it worth conversation …

When Elizabeth Ann reaches her new home, she is immediately addressed as Betsy and when she looks upset, she is given a kitten to take care of. But…

It’s important to see that this new family is not ignoring her state of mind. They are addressing it differently.

… something very queer began to happen to Elizabeth Ann. She felt as though a tight knot inside her were slowly being untied. … she drew one or two long, half-sobbing breaths….
Aunt Abigail laid down her book and looked over at the child. “Do you know,” she said, in a conversational tone, “do you know, I think it’s going to be real nice, having a little girl in the house again.”
Oh, then the tight knot in the little unwanted girl’s heart was loosened … Elizabeth Ann burst suddenly into hot tears … these tears were very different from any she had ever shed before. …Aunt Abigail said, “Well, well!” and moving over in bed took the little weeping girl into her arms. She did not say another word then, but she put her soft, withered old cheek close against Elizabeth Ann’s, till the sobs began to grow less, and then she said: “I hear your kitty crying outside the door. Shall I let her in? …

Autonomy, competence, and helping others, are the touchstones of a healthy emotional life in this book. As I said, focusing on emotions of children is NOT new. And quite possibly, done wrong, not very helpful???

Also I don’t know why the font is so large in the quotes and I can’t make it stop.