The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-07-31
Fairy Tales
Still Liked
by Children
Educators Oppose Stories
Which Really Are
Quite Harmless.
BY HELEN WELSHIMER
MA service stan Writer.


MAYBE educators are more con-
w cerned with the child mind
than with the child heart. Perhaps
10 is right that il should be so. Be
that as It may. many educators are
saying that It is wrong TO teach
children that babies are found un-
der burberry bushes. stars are
candles on a celestial birthday cake.
and Aladdin got an apple and
bright red sled when he rubbed an
old lamp.
This group is telling us that fairy
tales misrepresent life. From the
llamorous. far-gone days when
knight rode CALAMITY up a glass hill
10 win a yellow haired lady who was
shut up IN a magic tower. We arise
20 protest A fairy tale never. never
has claimed 10 be a representation
of life. Il doesn't have 10 be. It
knows 2 loveHer land Of its own.
Miss Marjorie BarTOWs. editor OF
Child Life. remarked recently that
only the aucmic fairy tales are pass
ing. The old favorites live. she says.
She quotes the reason which inveS-
tigators give for the diminishing in
tercst IN fairy tales.
They find that our speedy,
whirligig American life with its "a
do and movies and automobiles de-
velops children faster than their
grandparents and parents developed
in more rcstful eras. And they find
that the aIrplanes and other inven-
tions ard discoveries Of twentieth
century science satisfy their crav-
ings for marvels perhaps better
than Aladdin's lamp or the travel
Ing-clOak Of the Little Lame Prince"
Old FavOrites Remain
But when the figures are COM
pared. she states. the strong fairy
tales sell as rapidly as ever in spite
Of realistic competition.
You see. its as natural for a child
to dream as 1t is for him 10 roll
hOOp or run down hill He knows
that there never really was a wish
ing carpet. But that delightful i'm
ag'native part a. his mind likes 10
pretend that there was, Just as the
sCulleTy maid allows herself one
night out Of every week 10 gaze at
a cinema star and imagine that she
Is the girl Of his celluloid romance.
Forget Make Believe
Giving a child fairy tales is not
encouraging him to lie. The mate
rial of which the stories is woven is
a lovely. glamorOuS. make believe
fabric. II never violates honor or
honesty. Virtue and chilvalry win
their rewards.
soon enough the clock Will strike
y and Cinderella's slipper viii be
the one that the cobbler patched
last week.
Soon enough children grow up 10
learn that sometimes a wish made
over the right shoulder on a little
new moon doesn't come true; that
sometimes one may enter a wishing
gate and yet never find the wish
anywhere.
Children OutgrOw the charm OF
the make believe world slowly. They
find the developed magic of the real
world and no harm is done.
Stories whose characters have
lived for years-Peter Pan, PinOchio.
Hans Andersen. Arabian Nights"
the o. books and DR.. DOOlittle books
have some fundamental stimula-
ton for a Child's mind or they would
have been baniShed from his book
shelves long AGO.
II a gay moment in an enchanted
land at the beginning of life'S Jour
ney. viii help a child TO be happier.
who are we TO take it away from
him? He Will grow up afterward
and know better, if that Is your fear.
just because a grOwn-up didn't
like fairy tales when ne was 6 and 7
is no proof that his own child WON'T.
Maybe the parent didn't like wood
tag. either, and maybe his small
son will