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Don't try this at home: fairy tale edition
Filed under: Big Kids, Weird But True, Day Care & Education
What sort of parent would let their daughter wander around the forest alone? Especially when there are bears about? Or take a shortcut through the woods to Grandma's house, regardless of how in need of cookies the old lady might be? At the very least, teach the kid not to talk to strangers, especially wolves!It seems that fairy tale parents are worse than real-life parents -- hence the fates of Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood. Luckily, kids understand that these are tales of caution, not suggestions on how to live their lives -- or do they? In South Australia, the Education Department isn't so sure. They want teachers to give kids warnings when reading children's stories such as these. Professor Freda Briggs, who helped develop the curriculum, explained that "this is about appropriately empowering the child."
On the other hand, critics are worried about scaring children too much. "You don't want to scare children too much and create an environment of fear," said Australian Family Association spokesman Jerome Appleby. "We don't want to create little nervous wrecks."
Personally, I always thought the whole point of fairy tales, like fables, was to teach a lesson in a way that children could relate to the message. On the other hand, perhaps, kids these days need that message spelled out a little more clearly.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
7-13-2008 @ 4:42PM
Uly said...Actually, Roger, the original fairy tales were told by and for adults.
As such, many of them have no moral, or the moral is one that parents may not agree with.
For example, in many older versions of Rumpelstiltskin the moral is essentially "Being lazy pays off in the end", and the only moral I can find for most original forms of Red Riding Hood is "Wolves are bad, and once you're et, that's it."
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7-13-2008 @ 6:05PM
Amy said...I think the scary stories of childhood are designed to help children deal with their fears (being lost, being separated from their parents, etc.) in a safe way. Fairy tales allow us to look at a character, say Cinderella, whose parents have died and who is left in the care of an evil step-mother, but through hard work and kindness she ends up happy in the end. The message, to kids, is, "Even if the worst happens, you'll be ok, too."
When kids don't get the opportunity to work through these fears, it doesn't prevent them from having them. It simply prevents them from learning that everything will be ok in the end. It's the end, not the middle, that's important. Every culture has had these stories, and I think we do our kids a disservice when we "protect" them from the scary elements of them.
Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com
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7-13-2008 @ 6:05PM
Amy said...I think the scary stories of childhood are designed to help children deal with their fears (being lost, being separated from their parents, etc.) in a safe way. Fairy tales allow us to look at a character, say Cinderella, whose parents have died and who is left in the care of an evil step-mother, but through hard work and kindness she ends up happy in the end. The message, to kids, is, "Even if the worst happens, you'll be ok, too."
When kids don't get the opportunity to work through these fears, it doesn't prevent them from having them. It simply prevents them from learning that everything will be ok in the end. It's the end, not the middle, that's important. Every culture has had these stories, and I think we do our kids a disservice when we "protect" them from the scary elements of them.
Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com
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7-13-2008 @ 8:33PM
Jenni said...How about looking at these as stories for the sake of entertainment. When I tell children the story of the Billy Goats Gruff or Goldilocks and the Three Bears or The Three Pigs, it's not to give them a lesson; it's to spark their imagination. I sure survived childhood without wandering through the woods alone; and these were some of my favorite stories.
I also never really believed that pigs could buiild houses, trolls were under bridges, or bears actually ate porrige. We really don't give children enough credit; they can think through these tales and recognize them for what they are: Fun Stories!
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7-13-2008 @ 9:34PM
hall monitor said...If you haven't noticed, this trend of making everything about school a little more safe is going to start having impacts on children as they grow up. Fairy tales are too scary, "Tag" is too dangerous, everybody gets an award just for trying. There are certain realities that children will never face because they are taught otherwise. Every generation up until now has had to tough things out and learn for themselves. I just think that we are babying kids too much, and schools aren't helping.
Hall Monitor
http://detentionslip.org
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7-13-2008 @ 11:24PM
ninainindia said...You are exactly right. The way children are being brought up nowadays is worrying. Everytime I read the posts on this website about things banned etc. I wonder what will come of these children when they grow up.
7-14-2008 @ 1:25PM
Baron said...Exactly. We are going to create a generation of "babies" that are scared of everything, even more PC than now (amazingly possible), etc. The thing is, their kids will likely rebel (if not, it might take a second gen after that) and go the opposite way. If you look at history, you can see that a bit (usually, not the majority, but they are the most vocal bit) of each generation wants to do exactly the opposite of how they were raised. In a funny way, it all sorta balances out in the end.
7-14-2008 @ 3:24PM
creation28 said...testing once more
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