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 Marc Brackett, a psychologist at Yale University, has devised the Ruler programme for teaching emotional intelligence. In the UK, it’s being piloted at a number of nursery and primary schools in London.

 Ruler stands for “Recognising your emotions; Understanding them; Labelling them and Expressing them in a Regulated way.” Participants are encouraged to plot their feelings on a scale of colours called a mood meter – red for angry, blue for sad, green for calm and yellow for happy.

 The more I read about this, the more I thought … how wonderful, and even more wonderful was the comment by Anna Tyzack writing about her son Hector’s experience of the programme.  On returning home for the day, she asked him how he was feeling:

 ” Yellow,” he said, grinning.

”And what should I do next time you get red?’

He thought for a moment. ‘Sing me a song,’ he said.

 Hector, by the way, is three.

 Yellow days or red days aside (and what a great project this is), I know a few adults who might benefit from being able to express their feelings as well as Hector does.