Lifting spirits one sticker at a time
By John Bogert
Reprinted from the Daily Breeze
Lifting spirits one sticker at a time By John Bogert,
Staff Columnist
Posted: 11/29/2008 09:28:18 PM PST
There are few beings on this earth more delightful to be around than small children and those rare adults who somehow maintain that precious spark of childhood within.
A great example of this is Emily Baum, or Miss Emily as her piano students call her. Actually, the 37-year-old piano and classroom teacher is the only example I can think of. And I mentioned her age for a reason. Miss Emily could easily pass for 19, for somebody just out of childhood, for a young woman who has yet to lose whatever it is that makes her radiate like sunshine from beneath blond curls.
I met her by chance several years ago in her Hermosa Beach piano studio, which is located upstairs and only a few steps from the ocean at 49 Pier Ave.
She lives a block away by design, believing that stressful things like driving kill the spirit while happiness is a fountain of youth. Far more delightful than eccentric, Miss Emily invited me in and asked me in don't-resist fashion to take a place on the checkered rug and to sing along: "The wheels on the bus go round and round round and round."
She does these silly singalongs and story times at children's parties, at the Spectrum Athletic Club and at local libraries when she is not substitute teaching in Hermosa Beach. And the singing, or the audacious emotional throw-back that comes with it, seems to have the same effect on adults as children. Only with children the reaction is automatic and visceral while adults seem shocked to rediscover it. She has had entire stressed-out law firms in to sit and sing. I've seen pictures of men and women in suits, sitting cross-legged, smiling shyly and having the best time.
For the New York-born, New Jersey-raised Miss Emily, this is a gift.
"I only ever wanted to play piano and teach," she told me, green eyes wide and delightful voice pitched exactly where it needs to be to succor and comfort.
Adult piano students have called her "perpetually upbeat, patient, positive and always enthusiastic." Some take lessons alongside their children and none have seen her lose this cheery character, which might point to this being her real character.
There is always in her an approachability, an openness that allows her to do pretty much anything she wants and get away with it.
For instance, in the last couple of years she has been getting away with "stickerizing" people. That's her word for an old classroom practice that she has taken to a needy world.
"It started when I put a sticker on my trainer at the gym," she said. "He works so hard and like so many of us, he's underappreciated. Then it hit me. I've been doing this in class for years so why not use it in life?"
She calls this one-woman effort "Stuck on Miss Emily" and the whole premise hinges on sheets of smiley faces and stick-on colored stars that can usually cause instant and profound changes in the everyday moods of people facing an increasingly chaotic world.
"It's just a little reward for living, a little positive reinforcement," she said of stickers that wind up on shirt fronts of grocery checkers, bank clerks and on the Lakers she meets in the gym. She once got a free upgrade on a flight after stickerizing a harried ticket agent.
"I have stickerized bus boys and waiters, mechanics and people who don't even speak English and it works because rewards and appreciation are universal."
She even asked me if I feel appreciated at work. Was she kidding? Skunks feel more appreciated than newspaper reporters.
"Adults don't get praised often enough, if at all, especially by bosses who don't use positive reinforcement. With all the stress in the world even a little reward goes a long way," she said, presenting me a stickerized report card like the ones she gives her music and musical story time students. Contact Emily at (www.pianolessonsbyemily.com or 310-937-0150).
I'm proud to say that I got three stars beside "Consistently makes people smile" and two beside "Is a great listener." I need to work on that.
Yeah me! This I say as someone who daily receives messages from people who would rather see me working as a crash test dummy. When all I really want is a sticker!
Wait. Where was I? Oh, yes, Miss Emily, who may be onto something here.
But I couldn't help but think that an attractive woman handing out stickers would have a far different effect than stickers meted out by me, a guy perpetually sidelined at airports by Homeland Security.
And I was right, with at least one co-worker cynically refusing my happy-face sticker offer.
"Perception is part of it," Miss Emily counsels, noting that few have refused her advances. In fact, she now hands stickers out to male friends. "I use them to reinforce positive behavior. Call when you're going to be late, you get a sticker. Bring Miss Emily flowers, you get another sticker."
She continues, "We may be adults but we still crave rewards. A pat on the back goes a long way to aid productivity. If a sticker can change a child's behavior why can't it do the same for us? You know, a little reward to help us toward our goals."
Naturally there is a trick.
"It all hinges on putting yourself in a child-like place," advises Miss Emily, who plans to put her piano-teaching methods and the stickerization idea into book form. "Put yourself into a child-like place and see where it leads. To stickerize you must be bold."
And special. Don't forget special.
I want to hear your comments. Connect with me at [email protected].
By John Bogert
Reprinted from the Daily Breeze
Lifting spirits one sticker at a time By John Bogert,
Staff Columnist
Posted: 11/29/2008 09:28:18 PM PST
There are few beings on this earth more delightful to be around than small children and those rare adults who somehow maintain that precious spark of childhood within.
A great example of this is Emily Baum, or Miss Emily as her piano students call her. Actually, the 37-year-old piano and classroom teacher is the only example I can think of. And I mentioned her age for a reason. Miss Emily could easily pass for 19, for somebody just out of childhood, for a young woman who has yet to lose whatever it is that makes her radiate like sunshine from beneath blond curls.
I met her by chance several years ago in her Hermosa Beach piano studio, which is located upstairs and only a few steps from the ocean at 49 Pier Ave.
She lives a block away by design, believing that stressful things like driving kill the spirit while happiness is a fountain of youth. Far more delightful than eccentric, Miss Emily invited me in and asked me in don't-resist fashion to take a place on the checkered rug and to sing along: "The wheels on the bus go round and round round and round."
She does these silly singalongs and story times at children's parties, at the Spectrum Athletic Club and at local libraries when she is not substitute teaching in Hermosa Beach. And the singing, or the audacious emotional throw-back that comes with it, seems to have the same effect on adults as children. Only with children the reaction is automatic and visceral while adults seem shocked to rediscover it. She has had entire stressed-out law firms in to sit and sing. I've seen pictures of men and women in suits, sitting cross-legged, smiling shyly and having the best time.
For the New York-born, New Jersey-raised Miss Emily, this is a gift.
"I only ever wanted to play piano and teach," she told me, green eyes wide and delightful voice pitched exactly where it needs to be to succor and comfort.
Adult piano students have called her "perpetually upbeat, patient, positive and always enthusiastic." Some take lessons alongside their children and none have seen her lose this cheery character, which might point to this being her real character.
There is always in her an approachability, an openness that allows her to do pretty much anything she wants and get away with it.
For instance, in the last couple of years she has been getting away with "stickerizing" people. That's her word for an old classroom practice that she has taken to a needy world.
"It started when I put a sticker on my trainer at the gym," she said. "He works so hard and like so many of us, he's underappreciated. Then it hit me. I've been doing this in class for years so why not use it in life?"
She calls this one-woman effort "Stuck on Miss Emily" and the whole premise hinges on sheets of smiley faces and stick-on colored stars that can usually cause instant and profound changes in the everyday moods of people facing an increasingly chaotic world.
"It's just a little reward for living, a little positive reinforcement," she said of stickers that wind up on shirt fronts of grocery checkers, bank clerks and on the Lakers she meets in the gym. She once got a free upgrade on a flight after stickerizing a harried ticket agent.
"I have stickerized bus boys and waiters, mechanics and people who don't even speak English and it works because rewards and appreciation are universal."
She even asked me if I feel appreciated at work. Was she kidding? Skunks feel more appreciated than newspaper reporters.
"Adults don't get praised often enough, if at all, especially by bosses who don't use positive reinforcement. With all the stress in the world even a little reward goes a long way," she said, presenting me a stickerized report card like the ones she gives her music and musical story time students. Contact Emily at (www.pianolessonsbyemily.com or 310-937-0150).
I'm proud to say that I got three stars beside "Consistently makes people smile" and two beside "Is a great listener." I need to work on that.
Yeah me! This I say as someone who daily receives messages from people who would rather see me working as a crash test dummy. When all I really want is a sticker!
Wait. Where was I? Oh, yes, Miss Emily, who may be onto something here.
But I couldn't help but think that an attractive woman handing out stickers would have a far different effect than stickers meted out by me, a guy perpetually sidelined at airports by Homeland Security.
And I was right, with at least one co-worker cynically refusing my happy-face sticker offer.
"Perception is part of it," Miss Emily counsels, noting that few have refused her advances. In fact, she now hands stickers out to male friends. "I use them to reinforce positive behavior. Call when you're going to be late, you get a sticker. Bring Miss Emily flowers, you get another sticker."
She continues, "We may be adults but we still crave rewards. A pat on the back goes a long way to aid productivity. If a sticker can change a child's behavior why can't it do the same for us? You know, a little reward to help us toward our goals."
Naturally there is a trick.
"It all hinges on putting yourself in a child-like place," advises Miss Emily, who plans to put her piano-teaching methods and the stickerization idea into book form. "Put yourself into a child-like place and see where it leads. To stickerize you must be bold."
And special. Don't forget special.
I want to hear your comments. Connect with me at [email protected].
