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| Sleeping Beauty - Yeah, more than a bit creepy when you think about it. |
Here's another editorial inspired by a typical click-baity tabloid headline. We do love it when the tabloid press leap on a 'cause' and do their usual harrumphing and snorting, moralising on our behalf.
The story of the mum who made an extremely good case for banning fairytales in schools definitely made us sit up and take notice. The gist of the article suggests that most classic fairy tales are no longer appropriate for schools to read to kids, nor are their core messages fitting for the modern world of equality and diversity.
She has a point - I mean if you start to pull in a few of those stories and pick them apart, or make the classic mistake of measuring the worth of something written hundreds of years ago to modern sensibilities and moral standards.
Imagine the pitch to an agent or publisher for a few of the more well-known fairy tales though...
"Yeah, well I've got this excellent idea for a story where this guy breaks into a sleeping girl's bedroom and kisses her to wake her up"
Or if we turned the spotlight on other fairy tales...
"How about a heartwarming story about a couple of parents who lead their kids into the middle of a forest and ditch them there, and they end up fighting for their lives against a crazed old cannibal lady"
Don't like that one? How about...
"The story of a little girl sent off on her own into a dark and dangerous forest to deliver groceries for her grandma, who is later attacked and consumed by a wild animal before the animal is horrifically killed in front of the girl by a passing woodcutter."
No? OK one more...
"A super little story about a girl who is imprisoned against her will in a tower, has to lure a guy to climb up her hair to save her - but then witnesses the poor would-be rescuer being violently thrown out of the tower into a huge patch of thorns (which blind him) in a clear case of attempted murder by her adopted mother."
The likes of Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm have long been a source of inspiration for children's books, or in some cases, outright theft of story ideas. For a very long time I've always wondered whether championing these tales, or trying to represent them in children's books with versions as close to the original as possible is a good idea or bad.
On the one hand, banning anything just leads to that thing often becoming more popular - even championed by folk who (quite rightly) have extremely good reasoned arguments for keeping those sort of texts in schools. Classroom discussions and activities based around why those stories represent 'bad examples' could actually end up being positive.
Obviously we've seen many instances of classic fairy tales being 'doctored' and diluted a bit to make them slightly more palatable for today's young audiences, but quite often we've rolled our eyes at new versions of classic tales that swing way too far in the opposite direction, the literary equivalent of a weak lemon drink vs the best fresh home made lemonade.
When we do see a reinvention that works though, it's actually a wonderful thing and a few authors and artists understand how to work with the original stories and give them a more contemporary message (Hello Lynn Roberts-Maloney and David Roberts).
There are also series like "The Fairytale Hairdresser" that successfully tap into those story worlds, retaining the characters but bringing the stories bang up to date with far more kid-friendliness, positive messages and without layering on the schmaltzy sweetness too much. Female characters become independent, smart, inspirational while male characters aren't constantly wandering around 'on the make' the whole time - or trying to show off their macho bravado and fighting prowess.
I'm definitely not for outright banning anything book-related in schools (though obviously there are a few books and texts you wouldn't want anywhere near a school - Stuff like Donald Trump's official biographies for example) but I would definitely like to see classic fairy tales examined in their original historical context, and use that as the basis for a learning experience for sure.