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Beyond the Brothers Grimm

In the early years, much of Waldorf education is centered around Grimm's fairy tales, and I understand why-- the Brothers Grimm bring a lot to the table. Archetypal figures, clear cut examples of good and evil, beautiful descriptions that allow children to create a picture in their hearts and minds, these fairy tales have captured the hearts of parents and children alike for generations. Beyond that, they are part of our collective heritage and hearing them gives children a cultural literacy that is sadly falling by the wayside in our society.

However, they are not without problems. The protagonist is often described in very Eurocentric terms-- white skin, golden hair, and so on. In Mother Holle, for example, the good, hard-working daughter is rewarded with riches and gold. The lazy daughter is turned black. This white = good, black = bad imagery is found in many stories, even modern day ones (for example, Harry the Dirty Dog) but it's prevalence shouldn't make it any more acceptable to us. Just as we hope the positive, enduring messages of the fairy tales make their way into the souls of our children, we should be aware that unwelcoming, stereotypical messages are being heard on some level as well.

When I was in a classroom ten years ago, a great deal was being said about multicultural education. While the intent of multuculturalism is positive-- teaching children about other cultures so they will grow to respect them and not fall into the trap of racism and prejudice-- this path often leads to a tourist approach to other cultures. To celebrate Chinese New Year, we might tell a story from the Chinese culture, followed by making a dragon, cooking a "Chinese" dish, making a "Chinese" hat, singing a "Chinese" song. Instead of focusing on learning about the Chinese people or the diversity of culture found in China, we exoticize and trivialize the culture, comparing it to our own as if we are the measuring stick for all things. It is as if we want to divide the world into two sections: people who are "just like us" and people who are "different from us."

Beyond multiculturalism is the anti-bias approach, which actively seeks to challenge prejudice, stereotypes, and bias. Instead of being "color blind"-- which really only works if you are part of the dominant culture; minorities do not have that luxury-- we encourage children's questions and observations, and aren't afraid to add to the conversation. It frees us to appreciate similarities and differences.

This is not to say that we should have long, drawn-out, adult-initiated conversations with our children about the heady topic of race. As in all things, Waldorf education in the early years seeks to educate through imitation, a warm and loving environment, imaginative play, and meaningful work. It respects a child's connection to nature and to their home environment. It seeks to create a rhythmic and predictable environment as a child grows more and more into themselves and becomes more aware of the world around them.

What, then, can we as parents do to encourage a non-biased approach without being overly didactic in our methods? I have several suggestions.

~ Choose books that show people of all colors and cultures, and not just one or two as a token. Some of my favorites are
More, More, More Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams
Hooray! A Pinata! by Elisa Klevins
Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang
Swimmy by Leo Lionni

Avoid books with "I is for Indian"-type stereotypes.

~ In your play kitchen, include food and utensils from other cultures. I've seen many lovely online tutorials for felt food from around the world.

~ When choosing art materials, include skin-toned paper, paints, crayons, and play dough. I am well aware of the controversy in Waldorf education surrounding the use of brown and black crayons and frankly, find it ridiculous.

~ Play games and sing songs from other cultures and in other languages. Sing simple songs in more than one language.

~ Make dolls and doll clothes using a variety of skin tones and facial features.

~ Be aware of your own use of language. Don't make disparaging comments about the colors black and brown. If you're child makes a comment about something being "yucky brown like poop and dirt" you can counter with a comment about "beautiful brown like cinnamon and chocolate."

~ Use folk tales and fairy tales from other cultures. Tell the stories with puppets and table dolls that represent those cultures.

It's a complex subject and one that sadly, in a fallen world, I don't think we're ever truly going to get "right". But there's a lot we can do to be proactive. If we can't create a perfect world, we can, perhaps, work together to make a better one.

Workbox Wednesday: Nicholas

Here's what Nicholas kept busy with today.
An alphabet magnet book.

Playing The Very Hungry Caterpillar game with Daniel.

Reading "Each Peach, Pear, Plum" with Katie Grace.

Painting with blue.

Going on a penny hunt created by Michael.

Repeating a pancake game we made up yesterday.

Making patterns.

Talking about Ash Wednesday.

Putting favorite things away in a Lent box.

Making a robin finger puppet.

And taking over the world with ROBOTS!

Wordless Wednesday: Building

Morning walks

We don't get one in every day, but when we do, there's always something new to see


and explore.

A double celebration!

I'm coming in right under the midnight deadline to post pictures of our birthday/Fat Tuesday celebration. You see, my oldest, Michael turns... gulp!... eleven tomorrow, but we fast on Ash Wednesday, which would have meant no meat and no birthday cake.

He ended up choosing salmon for his birthday meal, but we decided to have it tonight so he could truly feast.
Michael's meal of choice: salmon, mashed potatoes, green beans, and orange soda.

And for his cake, he picked a King's Cake!


But Nicholas was the one who found the baby in the cake.

Goodbye to Alleluia

Taking down the Alleluia at church.

We desist from saying Alleluia, the song chanted by angels, because we have been excluded from the company of the angels on account of Adam's sin. In the Babylon of our earthly life we sit by the streams, weeping as we remember Sion. For as the children of Israel in an alien land hung their harps upon the willows, so we too must forget the Alleluia song in the season of sadness, of penance, and bitterness of heart.~Bishop William Duranti (1296)

I finally know what I'm doing for Lent.

In the past, I've always been of the opinion that if you're going to be miserable, you may as be miserable for a purpose. Lose some weight, drop a bad habit, pick up a good one in its stead. But after reading Sister Mary Martha, I've been convicted and now share her opinion that Lent is not for self-improvement. So instead, I've picked something that I know will make me absolutely miserable. Yay!

Seriously, and without going into too much detail, I may not be hanging out on the internet so much. On the other hand, my time online may end up being much more productive, as I'm hoping my Lenten discipline will make me more... um... disciplined. But again, being disciplined is not a pleasant thing for me. I don't even hold out hope it will benefit me beyond Lent. I'm doing it purely because I know it will make me miserable and will make God happy.

Today, we packed up the Valentine's day decorations. Tomorrow, we put ashes on our forehead, fast, pray, and make promises. We'll shroud the crosses and statues with purple and get out the Stations of the Cross. We'll begin our Lenten journey. The little ones will make Lenten Boxes and we'll hide the Alleluia until Easter.

And so, I wish you a blessed and holy Lent.

Daniel and his Sunday School friends, dancing goodbye to Alleluia.

Shhh!

A quiet time verse.

Shhh! Be very quiet.
Shhh! Be very still.
Fold your busy little hands.
Close your sleepy little eyes.
Shhh! Be very quiet.

Movie Review: The Lightning Thief

First off, let me say that we are HUGE Lightning Thief fans. We don't love it quite as much as the Harry Potter books, but we are the family that spent the summer creating our own Camp Half-Blood and we really, really enjoy the books. Rick Riordan tells a great story, and my kids have thrown themselves into the fantasy world he created. It was only natural that they wanted to see this movie as soon as it came out. Happily, the movie came out the week before Michael's birthday, so we made plans to take one of his friends and go see it opening day.

I am very, very glad we bought Michael other birthday gifts.

Now, I am not naive. I know that movie adaptations deviate from the books they are based on. I've seen all the Harry Potter movies after all. However, I was completely unprepared for the underwhelming mess they made of The Lightning Thief.

Rick Riordan is very skilled at taking a topic that has the potential to be rather sordid-- Greek gods and goddesses consorting with humans and getting them with child-- in a manner that is both tasteful and innocent. Tasteful and innocent are the last words I would use to describe this movie. Vulgar and crass would be more on the mark.

They completely tarted up the book. All the innocence and intelligence was sucked out of it and instead we're left with a hormone-ridden parody. For reasons I cannot begin to comprehend, they aged everyone up from 12 to 15 or 16. Instead of good-natured rivalry and "Seaweed Brain" between Anabeth and Percy, we instead got heaving bosoms and unrequited (thank goodness) sexual tension. I'm not sure why they felt the need to do this. The main characters in the book are 12, the books are aimed at the 9-11 year old set. But sex sells, I suppose, so Hollywood felt the need to give us skimpy, skin-tight outfits and lots of double entendres. Actually, I take that back. There wasn't anything nearly as sophisticated as a double entendre in this film. Just coarse, immature joking.

Let's look at the character of Grover, while we're at it. In the book, he's a slightly bumbling nature-loving satyr on the cusp of growing into himself. In the movie, he's a wisecracking horndog. Yuck. And of course, where there's sex, foul language for the sake of foul language follows. And the Lotus Hotel... oh, excuse me, it's now the Lotus Casino... now has wonderful drugged lotuses that appear to intoxicate the heroes.

Even if I had not read the books, this still would just not have been a good movie. The script was poorly written, with bad god voiceovers and plot holes you could drive a truck through. The fight scenes were choreographed in such a way that left me wondering if they had hired a dance coach from West Side Story. The acting was sub-par. The ending is dumbed down, with a Persephone ex machina plot device that even my 10-year-old thought was contrived. The entire movie played like a bad fan fiction that made it to the big screen. They took out the history. They took out most of the mythology. They took out all the fun.

The CGI was scary, scary stuff. I don't understand how this movie walked away with a PG rating, because the graphics were enough to scare even me, and I am a mother of 4. I don't scare easily.

In the end, the movie tarnishes everything good and golden about the books. This little gem-- "All lives end in suffering and tragedy"-- leads me to question whether the writers of the script even read the book. As my son said, "It's as if someone handed them a list of characters, a picture of the cover art, and told them it had something to do with Greek mythology, and they wrote the script based on that." Throughout the movie, I found myself asking "Who needs gods and heroes like this? Petty and ineffectual, there was very little redeeming in the supposed protagonists.

The good news? You can still read the books. Seriously, they're awesome books. Skip the movie.