TBCS - Craig - PLD - Fairy Tales and the Moral Imagination

Fairy Tales And The Moral Imagination

These notes are taken from the PLD conference I attended with Andrew Pudewa entitled Spicing up Your Kids' Learning.

• Fairy tales teach 'Kingness"
• Fairy tales teach Sacrificial Love

• Evil witches and goblins - must be killed and not tolerated
• Princes can be frogs - and frogs can be princes etc.

100 years ago Faith over arched everything - Education reflected Culture - Culture cultivated Faith

Now Education over arches everything - culture is meaningless - Who can tell the weirdest stories and do the weirdest stuff.

4 Types of Literature

1.  Whole Stories = fulfilling stories     good = good
                                                                  bad = bad
                                                         
                                                               good wins!  (some variant of Cinderella) 

A Periot version might be  - cut toe and heal exposes fraudulent step sisters - boys like!

Super heroes e.g. A Dark Night

Emphasis on Truth... Good prevails.

2.  Healing Stories = redemptive qualities e.g. Han Christian Anderson "The Little Match Girl"

Good = Good  Bad = Bad

Good prevails in a way that is unexpected

She was received into heaven - didn't just die.

It is hard to believe what we don't have a picture of

Another example "The Little Mermaid"

3.  Broken Stories

Good = Good    Bad = Bad    Bad wins!  e.g. Dr Jeckele and Mr. Hyde

Nothing good happens - exhausted by the end.

Another example "Lord of the Flies"

The show the extrapolation of evil and sin when you reject goodness and God etc.


4.  Twisted Books

Good as evil - Evil as good  Good is seen as dumb and stupid and evil is exalted.

An example "House of Cards".

                                                     _________________

It is suggested that our students should read 80% Whole, 20% Healing.

Adults could look at Broken.

Everyone should avoid Twisted.

We naturally inject  ourselves into the story we are reading. Who do I identify with? Who am I most like? What could or would I have done?

Archetypes that were part of writing have changed...

Dragons = represented evil that needed to be killed.
              = Puff that frolics.
              = Train your own dragon.

Vampires = eternal death
                = "Twilight Series" the vampire is a perfect guy.

Harry Potter gets kids interested in occult, witches, wizards, magic.

Suggested book of interest -

Stories feed our souls and help us negotiate issues in life... e.g.

Greed -  Midas and the Golden Touch, The Golden Goose

Surviving abandonment - Hansel and Grettle, Jimminy Cricket, A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The mystery of hospitality...

Wishes are the most real tings there are.

If you want something lawful, you get reward.

If you want something unlawful, you get result.

The mystery of life.

The value of life. (Fairy Tales are built around this)

There is more truth in a fairy tale than there is in a history book.

Resources:

Timeline of Classics

Sarah Mackenzie The Read Aloud Family Library

Lamplighter Press