Page 27 - SB-Collard Green Garden

As with the other stories in this series, The Collard Green Garden shows the negative consequences of poor coping skills. In this case, it is negative consequences of being controlled by peer pressure. The characters represent the Stinky Thinking that is part of peer pressure. The Young Girl demonstrates Not OK emotions and Thumbs Down behavior. This Stinky Thinking leads to negative feelings and doing or saying things against her better judgment because of the influence of someone else.
In the beginning of the story, the Young Girl, who has inherited a farm, realizes that the land in the area around her farm is very rich and productive. After a day spent cleaning, she learns that there is no food in the cupboards.
She rightly assumes that this farm should also have a garden. However, the untended garden of her farm grows only collard greens, which have seeded themselves year after year. She takes advantage of this food the first night but then decides that she should plant other vegetables in her garden.
She sees no big problem with this plan and begins to talk to herself about what she will plant. To this point, she is using Good Thinking and her emotions are OK and she is about to demonstrate Thumbs Up behavior by planting other vegetables in her garden. Then she is exposed to the manipulation of three animals who live in or near the garden. You get to see what happens when they try to influence her and she believes her own Stinky Thinking.
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