So, most people know I love languages. I'm not terribly good at them, but I've studied a bunch over the years and hope to continue that as I get older. So far I've dabbled a respectable amount in Spanish, French, Japanese, Gaelic, Swedish, and Dutch.
Right now, I'm trying to learn Dutch. I'm not sure why I've never really tried it before - my awesome grandmother speaks Dutch and it's an excellent opportunity to not only bond with her, but also to converse with a native speaker.
However, my main problem is that, in learning any language, I tend to get terribly bored with basic grammatical exercises and vocabulary memorization. So with Dutch (or Nederlands), I'm trying something different.
I'm using one of those 'Teach Yourself' books, along with an excellent FREE linguistic program called Byki, all topped off with a healthy dose of 'het laatste nieuws' courtesy of nu.nl. I study vocabulary and grammatical structure with 'Teach Yourself', use Byki for vocabulary building, and spend a lot of time translating full articles from Dutch into English. It's teaching me a lot about syntax and actual usage, both of which you can kind of miss living only in the world of language books.
So far, it's going well - I'm engaged, interested, and am learning all sorts of interesting things (like, apparently, they have designed a shoe in Holland that responds directly to the hormonal and menstrual cycle of women, raising and lowering the arch because, apparently, we need more support on our period!)
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
The New Children's Story: Coraline vs. The Grimms
I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine before the holidays regarding the nature of modern children's entertainment. Children's literature is an extremely large field today, with a variety of sub-genres and an almost endless supply of authors and silly titles. However, this conversation centered more around an (unfortunately) more common form of stimulation for today's kids: movies.
The discussion arose when we were discussing Avatar (which had just been released). I was extremely enthused about my experience with it, and recommended it to her - I also threw in that her nine-year-old son would probably enjoy it as well. To this she shook her head and replied that it would be too much for him - she'd rather not expose him to it.
For a second, I was utterly dumbfounded - tall, blue-skinned aliens with mostly suggestive and not direct occasional violence was not what I would view as 'too much' for a boy his age. However, I thought about it - I am constantly overstimulated and overexposed to violence simply because I am a part of American culture. (If I were European, it would be sexuality that I would probably be overexposed to). Avatar, while relatively tame to me, would probably be an enormous challenge for a child under the age of 12 to process.
This got me to thinking about other 'made-for-kids' movies that I probably would NOT show to my kids until they were old enough to get it - and Coraline, an excellent stop-animation film, would be one of them.
I recently watched this movie and was absolutely captivated both by the excellent medium of creation and the wonderfully inventive storyline. However, I was MAJORLY creeped out at several different points of the movie, and can only imagine what my child-self would have had to do to process all the very complex themes and elements contained within that movie.
However, in comparison, Grimm's Fairy Tales are hardly more upbeat. Replace the weird child-killing needle witch with the evil gingerbread-house kid-EATING witch in Hansel and Gretel, (not to mention the abandonment of the children by their own parents), and I think we're on pretty much even keel. However, I clearly remember hearing that story as a child and, while being 'scared', was not terrified or overwhelmed by the themes it presented.
For a long time, I mulled over what made Coraline different from Hansel and Gretel - why do I plan on reading the latter to my children in their cribs, but won't show the movie to them until they're old enough to be bringing home schoolwork I can't help them with? That's when I realized - the factor of imagination.
Grimm's Fairy Tales are extremely complex as well, with a great deal of deep themes that you can spend hours and days and weeks (etc etc) considering. However, they are short, quick-to-tell stories. Few are longer than 5 pages, and most vastly shorter than that. While tales like BlueBeard and The Brave Cobbler have a lot of depth, their descriptions are relatively short. They are put down quickly, with a great deal of 'wiggle room' for a child to imagine what the enemy looks like, how the hero comports himself, and what the princess is wearing. It's not like Coraline, where you can SEE the needles that make the witch's fingers - you have to imagine what a sugared glass window looks like.
And here is where the very important difference between 'children's' movies like Coraline and stories like Grimm's Fairy Tales diverge very distinctly - Coraline tells you, in every detail, what the story is and how it unfolds. The Grimm brothers allow children to fill in the blanks themselves - and if something is too much, they simply can skip over it.
It's very similar to the argument I have with children's toys today - they don't leave a lot of room for imagination. They dolls are fully articulated, fully featured, and completely out of room for a child's imagination. Castles are laden with nifty nooks and crannies that are already full of the creations of its makers - children don't have room to put down their own roots there.
What the Brothers Grimm did (whether or not intentionally) with their often incredibly dark children's stories was to leave kids room to imagine the story for themselves - they gave a relatively blank canvas with a lot of good structure for them to paint their own pictures with. Modern children's movies don't do that - and often actually shy away from leaving room for interpretation.
I will revisit this topic later, but the thought has been percolating for some time and I wanted to get it out. I'm interested to hear thoughts from others, though!
The discussion arose when we were discussing Avatar (which had just been released). I was extremely enthused about my experience with it, and recommended it to her - I also threw in that her nine-year-old son would probably enjoy it as well. To this she shook her head and replied that it would be too much for him - she'd rather not expose him to it.
For a second, I was utterly dumbfounded - tall, blue-skinned aliens with mostly suggestive and not direct occasional violence was not what I would view as 'too much' for a boy his age. However, I thought about it - I am constantly overstimulated and overexposed to violence simply because I am a part of American culture. (If I were European, it would be sexuality that I would probably be overexposed to). Avatar, while relatively tame to me, would probably be an enormous challenge for a child under the age of 12 to process.
This got me to thinking about other 'made-for-kids' movies that I probably would NOT show to my kids until they were old enough to get it - and Coraline, an excellent stop-animation film, would be one of them.
I recently watched this movie and was absolutely captivated both by the excellent medium of creation and the wonderfully inventive storyline. However, I was MAJORLY creeped out at several different points of the movie, and can only imagine what my child-self would have had to do to process all the very complex themes and elements contained within that movie.
However, in comparison, Grimm's Fairy Tales are hardly more upbeat. Replace the weird child-killing needle witch with the evil gingerbread-house kid-EATING witch in Hansel and Gretel, (not to mention the abandonment of the children by their own parents), and I think we're on pretty much even keel. However, I clearly remember hearing that story as a child and, while being 'scared', was not terrified or overwhelmed by the themes it presented.
For a long time, I mulled over what made Coraline different from Hansel and Gretel - why do I plan on reading the latter to my children in their cribs, but won't show the movie to them until they're old enough to be bringing home schoolwork I can't help them with? That's when I realized - the factor of imagination.
Grimm's Fairy Tales are extremely complex as well, with a great deal of deep themes that you can spend hours and days and weeks (etc etc) considering. However, they are short, quick-to-tell stories. Few are longer than 5 pages, and most vastly shorter than that. While tales like BlueBeard and The Brave Cobbler have a lot of depth, their descriptions are relatively short. They are put down quickly, with a great deal of 'wiggle room' for a child to imagine what the enemy looks like, how the hero comports himself, and what the princess is wearing. It's not like Coraline, where you can SEE the needles that make the witch's fingers - you have to imagine what a sugared glass window looks like.
And here is where the very important difference between 'children's' movies like Coraline and stories like Grimm's Fairy Tales diverge very distinctly - Coraline tells you, in every detail, what the story is and how it unfolds. The Grimm brothers allow children to fill in the blanks themselves - and if something is too much, they simply can skip over it.
It's very similar to the argument I have with children's toys today - they don't leave a lot of room for imagination. They dolls are fully articulated, fully featured, and completely out of room for a child's imagination. Castles are laden with nifty nooks and crannies that are already full of the creations of its makers - children don't have room to put down their own roots there.
What the Brothers Grimm did (whether or not intentionally) with their often incredibly dark children's stories was to leave kids room to imagine the story for themselves - they gave a relatively blank canvas with a lot of good structure for them to paint their own pictures with. Modern children's movies don't do that - and often actually shy away from leaving room for interpretation.
I will revisit this topic later, but the thought has been percolating for some time and I wanted to get it out. I'm interested to hear thoughts from others, though!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Awesome Esbats
Tonight was the first Fellowship Esbat. The Esbats are a series of classes where we work on more advanced rituals together. We were mostly laying the groundwork at this session - going over the goals and objectives of the class.
Point 1: Gwaeron has an absolutely AMAZING collection of books. I am trying really hard to remember all the titles now - needless to say I will be dedicating a portion of Xmas money towards amassing them (in used condition, of course).
Point 2: It's going to be great working with the group that's forming now - we have a great range of talents and interests, which should definitely keep things lively and fresh but nice and functional.
Point 3: I think this is really just what I am looking for in terms of honing my skills and continuing to develop. A lot of good stuff is going on right now, and I feel like this is one of the big waves that will bring me closer to the shore.
More to come...
Point 1: Gwaeron has an absolutely AMAZING collection of books. I am trying really hard to remember all the titles now - needless to say I will be dedicating a portion of Xmas money towards amassing them (in used condition, of course).
Point 2: It's going to be great working with the group that's forming now - we have a great range of talents and interests, which should definitely keep things lively and fresh but nice and functional.
Point 3: I think this is really just what I am looking for in terms of honing my skills and continuing to develop. A lot of good stuff is going on right now, and I feel like this is one of the big waves that will bring me closer to the shore.
More to come...
Friday, December 4, 2009
A Study of Fairy Tales: Part 1 Follow-Up
I did not properly cite Ms. Kready's book in my last post, so here is the citation now for your future reference. This text is available as an e-book at a variety of locations all over the web - you can just search for the title and author name.
I would like to point out, however, that since 1916 not much progress has been made in terms of using fairy tales to build up a strong foundation for future interest in literature - a lot of the articles I was finding focused on sexism and bias prevalent in fairy tales. While of course these are important issues that should be addressed, I think it is throwing the baby out with the bathwater to dismiss the value of these literary pieces to focus only on these negative aspects.
In that vein, I actually uncovered an article entitled "First Graders and Fairy Tales: One Teacher's Action Research of Critical Literacy" by Ryan Bourke. Not only did this offer a case study of the use of fairy tales to develop literary criticism, it also dealt with some of the negative issues above, as Mr. Bourke discovered when presenting the stories to his class, all of whom were not of European descent.
Bourke offers a good definition of critical literacy, actually quoted from another article entitled "Girls, Social Class, and Literacy".
Another article, written by Maryellen Grebin, outlines suggestions for helping kids actively play out fairy tales. Bourke's work focuses mainly on discussion an analysis, but I feel strongly that Ms. Grebin's work also has an important role to play in helping children synthesize the information contained within the stories.
Her suggestions include a "Fairy Tale Museum", where the children are curators of props they bring in themselves to represent the different stories. She also read different versions of fairy tales, from countries all over the world. Many of her students had never before heard the different versions. She also had them grow actual bean seeds as a tool for discussion about Jack and the Beanstalk. They covered topics such as why a lot of fairy tales seem to revolve around girls, and introduced other stories with more of a balanced focus.
However, while this innovative approach is certainly fun and engaging, the addition of Bourke's critical analysis techniques are essential to fostering a truly deeper understanding of the material.
I highly recommend reading Bourke's article, as it includes several conversations amongst his students that really reflect the intensity of the impact that critical analysis of these stories can have on children and their ability to synthesize literature.
Resources:
Bourke, R. "First Graders and Fairy Tales: One Teacher's action Research of Critical Literacy". The Reading TEacher, 62(4) pp. 304-312
Grebin, M. "Fairy Tales Get Real". Teaching Pre K-8. Nov/Dec 2002, Vol. 33 Issue 3, p58
Kready, L. A Study of Fairy Tales. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1916.I was very engaged by the concepts laid out in Ms. Kready's first chapter and introduction. The overall goal of this study is to learn more about the nature, structure, and telling of fairy tales, but her focus on using the same in early childhood education was really fascinating. I took some time to look through the Walden University database of articles, and found a few relating to the same topic.
I would like to point out, however, that since 1916 not much progress has been made in terms of using fairy tales to build up a strong foundation for future interest in literature - a lot of the articles I was finding focused on sexism and bias prevalent in fairy tales. While of course these are important issues that should be addressed, I think it is throwing the baby out with the bathwater to dismiss the value of these literary pieces to focus only on these negative aspects.
In that vein, I actually uncovered an article entitled "First Graders and Fairy Tales: One Teacher's Action Research of Critical Literacy" by Ryan Bourke. Not only did this offer a case study of the use of fairy tales to develop literary criticism, it also dealt with some of the negative issues above, as Mr. Bourke discovered when presenting the stories to his class, all of whom were not of European descent.
Bourke offers a good definition of critical literacy, actually quoted from another article entitled "Girls, Social Class, and Literacy".
Critical literacy...is the act of approaching texts wearing a set of eyeglasses through which the reader examines and questions the familiar and comfortable.Especially in its application to fairy tales, I find this definition to be most appropriate. There is very little more comforting than familiar stories from our childhood - but their inherent value comes not only from the 'mug of hot cocoa' response that is very superficial, but from an actual in-depth analysis not only of the story's message, but it's place in the readers time, in the authors time, the influence of the characters and their potentialities, and a number of other factors.
Another article, written by Maryellen Grebin, outlines suggestions for helping kids actively play out fairy tales. Bourke's work focuses mainly on discussion an analysis, but I feel strongly that Ms. Grebin's work also has an important role to play in helping children synthesize the information contained within the stories.
Her suggestions include a "Fairy Tale Museum", where the children are curators of props they bring in themselves to represent the different stories. She also read different versions of fairy tales, from countries all over the world. Many of her students had never before heard the different versions. She also had them grow actual bean seeds as a tool for discussion about Jack and the Beanstalk. They covered topics such as why a lot of fairy tales seem to revolve around girls, and introduced other stories with more of a balanced focus.
However, while this innovative approach is certainly fun and engaging, the addition of Bourke's critical analysis techniques are essential to fostering a truly deeper understanding of the material.
I highly recommend reading Bourke's article, as it includes several conversations amongst his students that really reflect the intensity of the impact that critical analysis of these stories can have on children and their ability to synthesize literature.
Resources:
Bourke, R. "First Graders and Fairy Tales: One Teacher's action Research of Critical Literacy". The Reading TEacher, 62(4) pp. 304-312
Grebin, M. "Fairy Tales Get Real". Teaching Pre K-8. Nov/Dec 2002, Vol. 33 Issue 3, p58
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
A Study of Fairy Tales (Laura F. Kready): Part 1
I would first like to introduce this section by lamenting the lack of information available about Ms. Laura Kready, author of the book I recently downloaded to read: A Study of Fairy Tales. I had hope to introduce her to you, but I have no information regarding her, aside from the fact that she had this book published by Houghton Mifflen in 1916.
A Study of Fairy Tales is a fascinating book that both analyzes fairy tales, and provides very motivating evidence to prove the worth of the fairy tale's presence in early education (kindergarten - 1st grade). The introduction and first chapter of the book are devoted entirely towards establishing the worth of the fairy tale in traditional early educational curriculums, by both providing evidence of their worth in developing character traits and also providing information regarding their value as an art form separate from traditional literature.
One of my favorite quotes from this portion of the book actually is from the Introduction, written by Henry Suzzallo, Ph.D. (then President of the University of Washington):
By contrast, literature such as traditional fairy tales, and enriching stories not built on easily-merchandisable characters offer kids both the escape they need to keep them stimulated (after all, even us adults can barely stay tuned into the real world anymore), but also gives them a real and unmovable foothold in what is right and wrong, what is worth pursuing and what is worthless, and so on.
::set soap box aside::
Now that I've vented properly, on to Ms. Kready's work.
In the first chapter, she outlines the qualities of fairy tales that make them essential for any child's education. They are:
A Study of Fairy Tales is a fascinating book that both analyzes fairy tales, and provides very motivating evidence to prove the worth of the fairy tale's presence in early education (kindergarten - 1st grade). The introduction and first chapter of the book are devoted entirely towards establishing the worth of the fairy tale in traditional early educational curriculums, by both providing evidence of their worth in developing character traits and also providing information regarding their value as an art form separate from traditional literature.
One of my favorite quotes from this portion of the book actually is from the Introduction, written by Henry Suzzallo, Ph.D. (then President of the University of Washington):
"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."We all know someone who has suffered from a severe lack of proper stimulation as children - and I fear that many of the kids I know now will also suffer from this. Not from an overabundance of grown-up wisdom forced upon them, but because of the absolute dearth of worthless shows, books, and other falsely stimulating products of our media-driven culture. While there is, of course, inherent value in the (occasional) mindless episode of a NickToon or Cartoon Network feature, they shouldn't be the primary diet of childhood - I think the next 10 years (if not the past 5) will quickly convince us of the lack of moral structure or guidance offered by these empty shells.
By contrast, literature such as traditional fairy tales, and enriching stories not built on easily-merchandisable characters offer kids both the escape they need to keep them stimulated (after all, even us adults can barely stay tuned into the real world anymore), but also gives them a real and unmovable foothold in what is right and wrong, what is worth pursuing and what is worthless, and so on.
::set soap box aside::
Now that I've vented properly, on to Ms. Kready's work.
In the first chapter, she outlines the qualities of fairy tales that make them essential for any child's education. They are:
- Fairy tales bring joy into child life.
- Fairy tales satisfy the play spirit of childhood.
- Fairy tales are play forms.
- Fairy tales give the child a power of accurate observation.
- Fairy tales strengthen the power of emotion, develop the power of imagination, train the memory, and exercise the reason.
- Fairy tales extend and intensify the child's social relations.
- The fairy tale as one form of the story is one part of the largest means to unify the entire work or play of the child.
- Fairy tales employ leisure hours in a way that builds character.
- Fairy tales afford a vital basis for language training and thereby take on a new importance in the child's English.
"Then [after being acquainted with reading through fairy tales] reading will take purpose for him, and be accomplished almost without drill and practically without effort.How better to keep our children interested in real, hearty literature that actually feeds the soul and fuels the heart, than to bring them up on the sweeter and kinder versions of the same?
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Appeal to Freyja
Last night I had a very interesting experience. I wrapped up my evening (of AWESOME fun with the Fellowship stuffing envelopes for the Tenafly Nature Center) by lighting a candle to Brighid and then another to Freyja, a little reflection and then a lot of hitting the hay.
At 12:30AM, my work cellphone rang (which never happens). I picked up the line, and there was a very distressed sounding woman on the other end. Now, my employer provides security and investigative services to corporations, but we do not do work for individuals. It can be a bit awkward, especially when I want to help people, but know that our policy restricts us and I have to protect the company by not offering my own brand of sage advice.
Without going into detail, her boyfriend was going ballistic over some calls in her call history. We couldn't provide services to her because she is an individual. However, after all my years of experience on various hotlines for women, I know when a situation is bad. Or at least I have a pretty good inkling.
So after having to tell this woman that we couldn't help her, I advised her to call law enforcement immediately. I told her that if she was scared and felt endangered, she needed to call someone right away, which she agreed to do. Then I had to do that hardest thing - hang up and hope for the best.
Instead of going back to bed and stewing incessantly about this woman's fate (my traditional coping method), I went right to my altar for Freyja. I told her what had happened and lit some incense as an offering to her, asking her to help guide this woman out of harms way and protect her from any danger. I let the smoke waft around my room for a while, then went to sleep feeling very calm, and very like I didn't need to be in control of the situation (a BIG thing for me).
It was wonderful to give up those worries and concerns and know that I had done all I could, and had asked for help outside of myself. I could rest in the knowledge that it was being given. It was a good night. And I'm grateful for her help. :-) Hail Freyja!
At 12:30AM, my work cellphone rang (which never happens). I picked up the line, and there was a very distressed sounding woman on the other end. Now, my employer provides security and investigative services to corporations, but we do not do work for individuals. It can be a bit awkward, especially when I want to help people, but know that our policy restricts us and I have to protect the company by not offering my own brand of sage advice.
Without going into detail, her boyfriend was going ballistic over some calls in her call history. We couldn't provide services to her because she is an individual. However, after all my years of experience on various hotlines for women, I know when a situation is bad. Or at least I have a pretty good inkling.
So after having to tell this woman that we couldn't help her, I advised her to call law enforcement immediately. I told her that if she was scared and felt endangered, she needed to call someone right away, which she agreed to do. Then I had to do that hardest thing - hang up and hope for the best.
Instead of going back to bed and stewing incessantly about this woman's fate (my traditional coping method), I went right to my altar for Freyja. I told her what had happened and lit some incense as an offering to her, asking her to help guide this woman out of harms way and protect her from any danger. I let the smoke waft around my room for a while, then went to sleep feeling very calm, and very like I didn't need to be in control of the situation (a BIG thing for me).
It was wonderful to give up those worries and concerns and know that I had done all I could, and had asked for help outside of myself. I could rest in the knowledge that it was being given. It was a good night. And I'm grateful for her help. :-) Hail Freyja!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Something Worth Writing About
It has been an awfully, awfully long time since I've productively blogged these past few seasons. I was a little lost in what I would be writing about - there aren't many people who would be actively interested in the comings and goings of my life, and I wouldn't want to subject anybody to that anyway.
After I stopped looking into the Irish Travelers (upon a sensible request from my father - when research starts requiring contacting law enforcement, it's probably good to back off), I suffered from a major lack of inspiration. I have a lot of education going on in my life right now - between the MBA program (looking to top off in November 2010!), various stops-and-starts in linguistic pursuits, and all the research I'm doing for spiritual stuff, I was surprised not to feel more inspired blog-wise. But I think I finally came up with something that will keep both me happy and engaged, and everybody else actually interested.
Fairytales! Not the Disney nonsense - while I like the animated mice in Cinderella as much as the next over-stimulated American, don't mistake those for anything other than watered-down versions of the real stories. I am talking about the real folklore, legends, and bed-time stories where not every ending was a happy one, and the good guys and bad guys were often not terribly easy to tell apart. I've always loved the Grimm fairy tales - and I became especially enamoured of even modern spinners of fairy-tales like George MacDonald. But the stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and Iona and Peter Opie, those are what are truly worth study.
The Grimms and the Opies had a dedication to keeping to the truth of oral storytelling that few others during their time had an interest in. I find the Grimms particularly interesting, since the fairy tales they collected were a by-product of their real research. The brothers were linguists, and their dedication to tracking down the true patterns and origins of their language (German) were what enabled them to keep a clear focus on writing down the stories exactly as they were told.
Oral traditions are an extremely important part of every society's culture - the European folk stories that give us Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood (told to the Grimms by Wilhelm's own wife and chilhood friend), and countless others tell us an enormous amount about the cultures, mythology, traditions and beliefs of our forefathers.
I'll start my research focusing on the stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm. I'll try to keep up with one meaty post per week - it ought to be fun!
After I stopped looking into the Irish Travelers (upon a sensible request from my father - when research starts requiring contacting law enforcement, it's probably good to back off), I suffered from a major lack of inspiration. I have a lot of education going on in my life right now - between the MBA program (looking to top off in November 2010!), various stops-and-starts in linguistic pursuits, and all the research I'm doing for spiritual stuff, I was surprised not to feel more inspired blog-wise. But I think I finally came up with something that will keep both me happy and engaged, and everybody else actually interested.
Fairytales! Not the Disney nonsense - while I like the animated mice in Cinderella as much as the next over-stimulated American, don't mistake those for anything other than watered-down versions of the real stories. I am talking about the real folklore, legends, and bed-time stories where not every ending was a happy one, and the good guys and bad guys were often not terribly easy to tell apart. I've always loved the Grimm fairy tales - and I became especially enamoured of even modern spinners of fairy-tales like George MacDonald. But the stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and Iona and Peter Opie, those are what are truly worth study.
The Grimms and the Opies had a dedication to keeping to the truth of oral storytelling that few others during their time had an interest in. I find the Grimms particularly interesting, since the fairy tales they collected were a by-product of their real research. The brothers were linguists, and their dedication to tracking down the true patterns and origins of their language (German) were what enabled them to keep a clear focus on writing down the stories exactly as they were told.
Oral traditions are an extremely important part of every society's culture - the European folk stories that give us Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood (told to the Grimms by Wilhelm's own wife and chilhood friend), and countless others tell us an enormous amount about the cultures, mythology, traditions and beliefs of our forefathers.
I'll start my research focusing on the stories gathered by the Brothers Grimm. I'll try to keep up with one meaty post per week - it ought to be fun!
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