A nice element of Aesop's fables is that they are secular. People of different religions, and none, can relate to them. No culture war needs to surround whether they can be read and taught and all can enjoy them.
I had a religious upbringing but I look more to the pragmatism of the Aesop's Fables than the moral stories in the Bible.
I had a religious upbringing but I look more to the pragmatism of the Aesop's Fables than the moral stories in the Bible.
5
Dare I say it? In my humble opinion, Aesop's Fables has more practical, down-to-earth wisdom in it than the Bible. (I hope God doesn't strike me dead for that.)
6
Religious people sometimes say that the facts in the Bible may be all wrong, but it is still good for the moral lessons. I say, why not read fables instead? There you have moral lessons too, but the stories are clearly seen as fiction. (And that's putting aside the question of the quality of the Bible's lessons in today's context, when we no longer kill people for working the wrong day of the week...)
3
Maybe when you're done venerating Aesop's wisdom, you'll be interested in checking out the Jataka tales, written in India about the same time as Aesop's fables were being written in Greece. There's a lot of overlap in the stories, and probably both derive from earlier fables that were being told in Assyrian or even Sumerian circles.
10
I recommend the African "Anansi" tales as well.
4
Just remember, Mr. Cunningham, that Grimm was not mean to teach children, but to scare them into submission to grown-ups.
2
I've loved books (the tactile kind) ever since I learned to read them when I was 6. They were all I ever wanted for birthday, Christmas, and as rewards for doing well in school.. My mom got me a children's version of selected Aesop's Fables when I was 8, and I read it from cover to cover at least once a year until I moved on to the adult version ("Complete Fables") and was delighted to find hundreds more to enjoy. I haven't read it in years, so I think I'll queue it up as Next on my reading list. I'm sure I can find something in there to put the current political situation in perspective.
8
Perhaps the greatest value of Aesop is first in your sharing it with your daughter and secondly in its content. The same can be said for many childhood books. The wisdom is in all of them from "Winnie the Pooh" to "The Wizard of Oz." It just takes a caring parent to sort it all out.
I am sure Aesop would be proud.
I am sure Aesop would be proud.
15
On Fables. Lucky is the child who, before taught to write and read, learned to listen to fables, fairytales, and nursery rhymes. To initiate the child into the art of listening to material that will bring to her/his mind the enchantments of imagination, there must be, in every child's family, a teller of tales and reciter of rhymes. The late authority on children, Bruno Bettelheim, author of the celebrated, "The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairytales," could not emphasize enough the impact on children of the word spoken by the human mouth, not a machine. Let that word arise from fiction and verse. Leave it to the listening child to ask questions she/he hears, and desist from explaining. The child's rapt listening is visible and valid proof that the fable, or story, or verse being told or recited is working silently on his/her imagination and mind.
In the mind/body dichotomy, children are mostly body, but to ensure that their minds too grow as their bodies do, we need to feed their imagination with words and ideas. All intellectual growth takes place silently, invisibly.
Vinson Cunningham's daughter is lucky to have a father like hers, as I was
to have grandparents, a mother, and neighborhood grannies, all full of
stories. "Once upon a time . . . " We need to save our children from the jungle of electronic gadgets.
In the mind/body dichotomy, children are mostly body, but to ensure that their minds too grow as their bodies do, we need to feed their imagination with words and ideas. All intellectual growth takes place silently, invisibly.
Vinson Cunningham's daughter is lucky to have a father like hers, as I was
to have grandparents, a mother, and neighborhood grannies, all full of
stories. "Once upon a time . . . " We need to save our children from the jungle of electronic gadgets.
18
My father, also, shared Aesop's Fables with me when I was about seven years old. I remember, particularly, the fox and the grapes. What great lessons are hidden in those pages...
7
As I get older, I see more and more situations that call to mind this and other folk wisdom. On the other hand, I recall the short story, but not the author or title, where the 2 veteran soldiers in Chechnya school a new recruit in the nature of war and the peasant suspicion and distrust embodied in the folk tale that is intertwined. And Puss in Boots, a tale of deceit, opportunism and resolve that any successful business person can appreciate.
2
Perhaps your daughter would enjoy Arnold Lobel's "Fables."
It's one of my favorites.
It's one of my favorites.
2
When my kids became teens, the only stories/advice of MINE that won their attention were the ones of my mistakes. They already knew I was less than perfect, so it was a small price to pay for imparting wisdom, or anyway advice, like "Don't wait to start a 20-page paper the night that it's due," and "Make sure you've at least looked at the directions before you start the drive, alone, to somewhere completely strange to you." That's still true even with Garmin and Siri!