How important are Fairy Tales?
Just two days back while working on an issue, a friend of mine lied about something and spontaneously I called her Pinocchio. Some of the colleagues were like …who Pinocchio?? I used to think this was a common character known by everyone….but their reaction was like….Our mom did not tell about this character, we are from regional schooling….this was all in the fun spirit …but this made me think …the importance of Fairy tales in our lives….most of us grow up hearing tales from our elders….grandparents, uncles, aunties, books, friends….and at that age are sooo engrossed in it that those characters are real for us…
I still remember Snow white, Cinderella , Peter Pan, Wendy, Bambi, Dumbo, Aladdin, Alice, Robin Hood, Mary Poppins and many more….had spent lot of my childhood engrossed in the characters…this wonderland …..Still somewhere this beautiful world is buried deep in my mind and continues with me till today…
Let our kids believe there are fairies behind those beautiful clouds, there is a princess waiting for your princesses, a magical Never Land, pirates, small people, talking trees, reachable moon …………Magic in the world!!! Help them in becoming imaginative, creative……let them color their world…..
Every story offers something different to the child…. The best way to teach about the world is by these tales…prepare the child for the good and the evil…..the choice and the consequences of that choice….the belief, the human nature….the creative side, these stories help us teach them the right and wrong in an easy way, instead of shouting at them directly, we can relate to a story character and remind the child what happened to him, like the witch in Snow white……
Bruno Bettelheim was a child psychologist, famous for his research on autism. A book written in 1976 won him National Book Award. This is what he writes in the introduction. "Wisdom does not burst forth fully developed like Athena out of Zeus's head; it is built up, small step by small step, from most irrational beginnings. Only in adulthood can an intelligent understanding of the meaning of one's existence in this world be gained from one's experiences in it. Unfortunately, too many parents want their children's minds to function as their own do-as if mature understanding of ourselves and the world, and our ideas about the meaning of life, did not have to develop as slowly as our bodies and minds. Today, as in times past, the most important and also the most difficult task in raising a child is helping him to find meaning in life." He goes on to say how important it is that literature provides a moral education which subtly, and through implication only, "conveys to him the advantages of moral behavior." His conclusion? "The child finds this kind of meaning through fairy tales."
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I agree totally with you BornLeo ....Its the truth!!! I just wish no child ever says that he does not believe in a fairy !!! Faires and this beautiful world has to live and keep growing..........
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When the baby laughs for the first time, his laugh breaks into a million pieces, shining pieces and they all go skipping about. They all become fairies.When a child says "He/She doesn't believe in fairies, His/Her fairy dies.
I believe its the truth.
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Thanks Palahali,
Atleast this made you dust of the book and again go through .....the blog has made some impact ....:)
Yeah am impressed by Bruno ...
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Ashjeet
Interesting ! Very glad to know your refs to Bruno Betleheim. I bought his book almost ten years ago . I dusted it off just recently and took a look again at the cinderella story. Thanks
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Thanks Sampath je for agreeing ...yes they do play a very important part in a child's personality
Read your poem..and as usual ...your style is impressive..
Thanks again
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do read my poem ..
a fairy tale poem..
fairy tales do play an imporatant
part in fashioning a child's personality....
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Good Morning
....Yes, I appriciate your viewes.....yash
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Poonam,
Come I will C U ..was for me ...or ....don't scare me plz.....
anyways thanks for the appreciation :)
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Thanks Indu for the visit...yeah fairy tales give us a different and beautiful world to explore ...and i personally have been very affected by this in all ascpets of my life....
even i love going through them till date.....and the cartoons..the comics.....
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hi Yash,
even i tell my son my instantly cooked up stories...coming from my imagination...still its imagination and thats what these tales are abt ...its not that we tell them exactly these characters i mentioned...it should be anything which gives them the freedom to explore...and create their own magical world......
growing up they will understand the difference in reality and fiction.....
thanks for the visit...and support....
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