Folklore Fatalities

I just finished reading, "Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us," and not only did I find this article extremely interesting, but I found myself able to easily relate to it.  Growing up I can remember having at least three Disney princess parties and as I watch my younger sister, cousins, and students grow up, I see them following in those same footsteps.  This caused me to wonder how so many little girls from so many different generations and family backgrounds all end up interested in the same thing as children.  As I thought back to my childhood, I realized the problem lies in literature.  Whether it was a bedtime story, free read in school, or a cartoon on TV, I was surrounding myself with stories like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, much like little girls now continue to do.  I can remember my parents telling me to turn off the pg-13 movie I tried to sneak, or that swear words are bad words, but I can't ever remember my parents yelling at me to put down the Disney Princess book I had glued to my fingers.  If a book is filled with princesses, castles, and magic it can't be that bad, right?  I guess that is where my parents were a little naive because little did any of us know at the time, those books were actually molding the way I perceived the world.  

Now that I am studying to be a teacher, I am starting to wonder if folklore stories are something I even want in my classroom.  Sure they are fun, magical, happy stories, but is there a trap we need to be aware of?  Linda Christensen really made me think hard about this question.  Although introducing folklores are a good way to address stereotypes I can't help but think that some kids may miss the point of the lesson and instead use the folklore story as a way to point out and even reinforce stereotypes instead. I can't recall ever having a discussion about many of the common folklore stories I read as a kid, so without even realizing it I was being brainwashed to believe women must be beautiful to fall in love and men must be strong to win the affection of women. In the Folklore powerpoint on angel the last slide had the quote, "We shortchange children if we deny them the background information necessary for understanding the countless references to folklore in contemporary books and society."  This quote really stuck out to me because it puts the purpose of reading folklores in perspective.  While it is possible that children will take the story and characters in folklore to be the truth, it is still important that children learn these simple, universal stories so that they have a reference point to other stories as they start to become even more involved in literature.  When it comes to folklores I think one of the most important things to include is a thorough and critical discussion about the book after it is read.  Instead of allowing children to use the book strictly as a fairytale read, try having the children write their own versions, reviews, or critiques of the text instead.