How Fairy Tales Shape Children’s Perspectives
Children in cultures all over the world are brought up with stories—myths, fables, and fairy tales. Many of these stories, such as those of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, are cross-cultural; they occur in many traditions. However, these classic tales are more than simply entertainment for the young. Many child psychology experts have made the connection between fairy tales and children’s emotional and mental development. In his class work, The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim believed that children could use fairy tales to “project” aspects of their own personalities, thereby developing new coping skills as they mature. As more research has been done, it is apparent that in a number of significant ways, fairy tales both impact the development and mold the perspectives of children as they grow.
Classic fairy tales tend to fall into two different types, and both types have a moral for their listeners. The first is what is called the restoration tale. These stories tell of individuals who have a wonderful life but …show more content…
Without children even noticing in most instances, fairy tales offer a thorough grounding in basic mathematical concepts, everything from measuring (think of Tom Thumb or the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk) to numbers and quantity (three drops of blood from the finger of Snow White’s mother and seven little beds all lined up in the dwarves’ cottage). In addition, fairy tales teach that most basic and useful of skills, direction (Andersone 113-114). Everyone knows that Red Riding Hood had to go through the woods to get to Grandma’s house, and one must go east of the sun and west of the moon in order to reach the magic palace. Since numbers, sequences, and directions all add order to our lives, their frequent appearance in fairy tales helps to reinforce children’s feelings that they can control their
Children in cultures all over the world are brought up with stories—myths, fables, and fairy tales. Many of these stories, such as those of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, are cross-cultural; they occur in many traditions. However, these classic tales are more than simply entertainment for the young. Many child psychology experts have made the connection between fairy tales and children’s emotional and mental development. In his class work, The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim believed that children could use fairy tales to “project” aspects of their own personalities, thereby developing new coping skills as they mature. As more research has been done, it is apparent that in a number of significant ways, fairy tales both impact the development and mold the perspectives of children as they grow.
Classic fairy tales tend to fall into two different types, and both types have a moral for their listeners. The first is what is called the restoration tale. These stories tell of individuals who have a wonderful life but …show more content…
Without children even noticing in most instances, fairy tales offer a thorough grounding in basic mathematical concepts, everything from measuring (think of Tom Thumb or the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk) to numbers and quantity (three drops of blood from the finger of Snow White’s mother and seven little beds all lined up in the dwarves’ cottage). In addition, fairy tales teach that most basic and useful of skills, direction (Andersone 113-114). Everyone knows that Red Riding Hood had to go through the woods to get to Grandma’s house, and one must go east of the sun and west of the moon in order to reach the magic palace. Since numbers, sequences, and directions all add order to our lives, their frequent appearance in fairy tales helps to reinforce children’s feelings that they can control their