Within this blog, I chose to combine playful learning and fairy tales together. But what makes that fairy tales are so useful in educating children? Let me first start on what fairy tales actually are.
Fairy tales
A fairy tale is always about an existential dilemma. Around this dilemma, the story is described bu using simplified situations with not that many details. The fairy tale contains as much evil als virtue, like how it is in real life. Both are present in every character, but the characters never show both at the same time. By doing this, fairy tales show the polarities of character. This causes the child to truly comprehend the differences between for example good and bad. This is why the characters seem to be less realistic to us, but not to children. Thus, the characters seem to be more typical and stereotype than unique like in reality.
Within fairy tales, a bad person never wins. He or she always loses out in a way that shows that crime does not give you anything good. Because of this idea, the bad guys never get a strong punishment. Fairy tales show that those punishments only solve the problem on the short term (Bettelheim, 1991).
A big advantage of using fairy tales in education, is that fairy tales teach a lot about the inner problems of human beings (Bettelheim, 1991). Fairy tales exist in many different forms and versions with a variety in characters, situations, emotions and settings. Bettelheim (1991) writes that in order to teach children about moral education, we need to show them the advantages of moral behavior. Fairy tales are an excellent way to show those advantages of moral behavior to children in an interesting and entertaining way. Even though fairy tales are very useful for moral education, Bettelheim (1991) emphasizes that the settings within fairy tales don't really teach about the specific conditions of modern life.
Fairy tales and the unconscious
Fairy tales transport important messages into the child's mind. Those messages go into the conscious mind, but also in the unconscious mind of the child. But how does this even work?
The roots of problems and difficulties are often within the unconscious mind. It is important that children learn to cope with these unconscious feelings. In order to do that. a child first needs to understand what is going on in his conscious self before he can cope with everything in his unconscious self. This might sound a little difficult, but the thing is that children need to put the unconscious content into the conscious fantasies. The only thing you will need for this, is fantasy (Bettelheim, 1991). And what is a better way to let the child fantasize, than by using fairy tales ?
Now you might understand why fairy tales are actually very important to use in your education. When there are some repressed elements within the unconscious mind of a child and they don't come to awareness by using fantasy, those repressed elements can actually cause self harm. But when those repressed elements do come to awareness, they will work their way through in imagination. In this way, those elements will cause positive effects in stead of negative effects (Bettelheim, 1991).
Identifying with the characters
Identifying with the characters is something that is important in playful learning, but it is also important in the use of fairy tales. The same as in playful learning, children develop their own personalities by identifying with the personalities of the characters in the fairy tales. Especially when they identify with the good characters in the fairy tale. Within a fairy tale, it seems to be that the more simple and straightforward a character is, the more a child can identify with him or her (Bettelheim, 1991). This is a good thing. If children identify with a good person, they also want to be a good person and be like their 'fairy tale hero'.
Fairy tales
A fairy tale is always about an existential dilemma. Around this dilemma, the story is described bu using simplified situations with not that many details. The fairy tale contains as much evil als virtue, like how it is in real life. Both are present in every character, but the characters never show both at the same time. By doing this, fairy tales show the polarities of character. This causes the child to truly comprehend the differences between for example good and bad. This is why the characters seem to be less realistic to us, but not to children. Thus, the characters seem to be more typical and stereotype than unique like in reality.
Within fairy tales, a bad person never wins. He or she always loses out in a way that shows that crime does not give you anything good. Because of this idea, the bad guys never get a strong punishment. Fairy tales show that those punishments only solve the problem on the short term (Bettelheim, 1991).
A big advantage of using fairy tales in education, is that fairy tales teach a lot about the inner problems of human beings (Bettelheim, 1991). Fairy tales exist in many different forms and versions with a variety in characters, situations, emotions and settings. Bettelheim (1991) writes that in order to teach children about moral education, we need to show them the advantages of moral behavior. Fairy tales are an excellent way to show those advantages of moral behavior to children in an interesting and entertaining way. Even though fairy tales are very useful for moral education, Bettelheim (1991) emphasizes that the settings within fairy tales don't really teach about the specific conditions of modern life.
Fairy tales and the unconscious
Fairy tales transport important messages into the child's mind. Those messages go into the conscious mind, but also in the unconscious mind of the child. But how does this even work?
The roots of problems and difficulties are often within the unconscious mind. It is important that children learn to cope with these unconscious feelings. In order to do that. a child first needs to understand what is going on in his conscious self before he can cope with everything in his unconscious self. This might sound a little difficult, but the thing is that children need to put the unconscious content into the conscious fantasies. The only thing you will need for this, is fantasy (Bettelheim, 1991). And what is a better way to let the child fantasize, than by using fairy tales ?
Now you might understand why fairy tales are actually very important to use in your education. When there are some repressed elements within the unconscious mind of a child and they don't come to awareness by using fantasy, those repressed elements can actually cause self harm. But when those repressed elements do come to awareness, they will work their way through in imagination. In this way, those elements will cause positive effects in stead of negative effects (Bettelheim, 1991).
Identifying with the characters
Identifying with the characters is something that is important in playful learning, but it is also important in the use of fairy tales. The same as in playful learning, children develop their own personalities by identifying with the personalities of the characters in the fairy tales. Especially when they identify with the good characters in the fairy tale. Within a fairy tale, it seems to be that the more simple and straightforward a character is, the more a child can identify with him or her (Bettelheim, 1991). This is a good thing. If children identify with a good person, they also want to be a good person and be like their 'fairy tale hero'.
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