This is one of a series of lesson ideas provided by Gill Chesney-Green from Derbyshire in the UK.  (Thanks a plenty Gill! - Kim Flintoff - Webmaster)

LESSON:    HOW  EMBARRASSING

AIMS:   To look at how we cope with our ‘failures’

OBJECTIVES: 

• To look at embarrassment and possible strategies for coping with it
• To look at how, as we grow older, we cease to become as embarrassed about our perceived ‘failures’

LESSON: 

Recount some embarrassing incident in the past or read out account of woman’s embarrassment with her tights. Ask for anyone to share an embarrassing moment with the class.

What makes people embarrassed now? ( parent’s choice of clothes, drawing attention to oneself, etc)

In groups  of 3-5 ask the class to explore a couple of embarrassing situations through drama.... based either on fact or fiction. Show these.

Ask the characters in the drama what it was that was probably the part of the incident that made it embarrassing. How could each person feel less embarrassed about the incident?

What are the factors which reduce embarrassment?

Re-do the scenes but this time have the person(s) being able to handle their embarrassment in a more constructive manner.

Ask what are the ways that people could reduce their embarrassment in the future.

RELATED ACTIVITIES:  Devise comedy from one or two of the student’s ideas.

ASSESSMENT POSSIBILITIES: Quality of discussion and reflection.

CROSS-CURRICULAR LINKS:  PSE

RESOURCES: Account of woman’s incident with her tights

I was once walking down Maddison Avenue in Manhattan during the rush hour when suddenly I felt a tapping in my shoulder. I turned to see a lady who I assumed had mistaken me for someone else. I smiled and kept on walking. A few steps later, the lady tapped on my shoulder again, this time with
greater insistence. When I turned to face her, she seemed very embarrassed and pointed with great urgency to the side walk. I looked down at my feet., thinking I was being warned about a manhole or a pile of dog droppings. What was it? I didn’t see anything. Again, she pointed insistently towards the
ground - towards my feet. The look on her face was one of alarm.

Peeping out from beneath the hem of  my left trouser was an inch or two of bright blue panty hose. I had worn the slacks the day before and apparently, in my rush to get undressed I had taken off the slacks, hose and all ... and the hose had stayed stuck in the leg. Now they were inching their way down my leg and dragging under my shoe.

What could I do? I couldn’t just stand there cross-legged and smile. There was no convenient place to change and every time I took another step, a little more of the panty hose crept out from the leg.
A few years earlier I would have withered in shame and embarrassment. But I realised that wouldn’t do any good so I made a decision. Since the situation couldn’t be ignored, why not get into it and enjoy it? Instead of surreptitiously sneaking it off my leg I reached down and started to pull the hose from my pants leg in an overly flamboyant gesture. At this point a small crowd started to gather. Now the thing about panty hose is the more you pull the more there is to pull. (It is like taffy it just keeps stretching?) 

At this point,  two of the most attractive men I had ever seen in my life turned the corner and came walking past me. I smiled sheepishly as if to say, No I don’t do this often just every now and then. Someone in the crowd hollered “Take it off , Mama!” By now I was puling out the last of the panty hose, twirling it round my head and cracking it like a whip. I bent towards the two newcomers with an exaggerated  bow and stuffed my hose back into my bag. The small crowd which had gathered around burst into applause and laughter. The two delighted men asked me if I was going to disrobe any further. When I assured them I wasn’t, they good naturedly invited me to have lunch with them, which unfortunately, I had to decline.

It was great fun while it lasted. However, had it  occurred a year or two earlier, it would have been a mortal blow to my ego.