Page 27 - Microsoft Word - Thinking like a wallaby 14DEC16.doc

Goat-thinking because now you know your friend steals and smokes so your problem

hasn’t really gone away)

A little bit of Worm-thinking might come in handy here, looking at this problem from

different views. For instance, what do you think this problem would be like if you were

the one offering stolen cigarettes? How would you expect your friends to behave? What

would you think if you didn’t know the person? What if it wasn’t a cigarette but some
worse kind of drug or a stolen bike? Would any of this make a difference to the way you

think?

Let’s bring in the elephant. With this sort of thinking, we can ask something about the

history of the problem. How did it start? Why did it start? Are there other problems that

led to this one? And what might happen in the future if we do something about it, or if

we do nothing.

Step 2. Look for solutions

Of course, it would be very sensible to use Ant-thinking for this problem. Ask for help

from a trusted adult. But there may be reasons why you don’t want to let them know
(like your friend may be in far worse trouble if you tell). What do

you do? Use your Spider-thinking. With spider thinking you can

get together all the information you think might be helpful – like

anti-smoking brochures for your friend, information about the law and what happens to
people who are caught stealing, advice from people about helping a friend who’s in

trouble, and so on. If you have a computer and can search the web, some of this

information might be easy to find.

Step 3. Choosing a solution

Finding a solution might need a bit of Koala thinking - this one

may need sleeping on before making a decision. Perhaps, when

you wake up, you will see things a little more clearly and the
answer will be obvious.

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