Purpose of fairy
tales.
Quote:
"THE fairy tale has a place in the training of children which
common sense and a sympathetic attitude toward childhood will not
deny. Some rigid philosophers, who see no more of life than is to
be found in logical science, condemn the imaginative tale. They
regard the teaching of myths and stories as the telling of pleasant
lies, which, if harmless, are wasteful. What the child acquires
through them, he must sooner or later forget or unlearn.
Such arguments carry conviction until one
perceives that their authors are measuring the worth of all
teaching in terms of strictly intellectual products. Life is more
than precise information; it is impulse and action. The fairy tale
is a literary rather than a scientific achievement. Its realities
are matters of feeling, in which thought is a mere skeleton to
support the adventure. It matters little that the facts alleged in
the story never were and never can be. The values and ideals which
enlist the child's sympathy are morally worthy, affording a
practice to those fundamental prejudices toward right and wrong
which are the earliest acquisitions of a young soul. The other
characteristics of the tale--the rhythmic, the grotesque, the
weird, and the droll--are mere recreation, the abundant playfulness
which children require to rest them from the dangers and terrors
which fascinate them.
The fairy tale, like every other literary
production, must be judged by the fitness of its emotional effects,
Fairyland is the stage-world of childhood, a realm of vicarious
living, more elemental and more fancy-free than the perfected
dramas of sophisticated adults whose ingrained acceptance of
binding realities demands sterner stuff. The tales are classics of
a particular kind; they are children's classics, artful adaptations
of life and form which grip the imaginations of little folks.
The diet of babes cannot be determined by the
needs of grown-ups. A spiritual malnutrition which starves would
soon set in if adult wisdom were imposed on children for their
sustenance. The truth is amply illustrated by those pathetic
objects of our acquaintance, the men and women who have never been
boys and girls.
To cast out the fairy tale is to rob human beings
of their childhood, that transition period in which breadth and
richness are given to human life so that it may be full and plastic
enough to permit the creation of those exacting efficiencies which
increasing knowledge and responsibility compel. We cannot omit the
adventures of fairyland from our educational program. They are too
well adapted to the restless, active, and unrestrained life of
childhood. They take the objects which little boys and girls know
vividly and personify them so that instinctive hopes and fears may
play and be disciplined.
While the fairy tales have no immediate purpose
other than to amuse, they leave a substantial by-product which has
a moral significance. In every reaction which the child has for
distress or humor in the tale, he deposits another layer of
vicarious experience which sets his character more firmly in the
mould of right or wrong attitude. Every sympathy, every aversion
helps to set the impulsive currents of his life, and to give
direction to his personality.
Because of the important aesthetic and ethical
bearings of this form of literary experience, the fairy stories
must be rightly chosen and artfully told. In no other way can their
full worth in education be realized. They are tools which require
discrimination and skill. Out of the wisdom of one who knows both
tales and children, and who holds a thoughtful grasp on educational
purpose, we offer this volume of unusually helpful counsel."
Unquote
HENRY SUZZALLO