Then and Now

It is a strange thing, time that is, not simply the distant past but also the recent past.  It wasn't so long ago that I read this same collection of poetry for an another English class.  The poetry hasn't changed so it must be me.  Poetry is sometimes difficult for me to discepher which is one reason why I've always enjoyed Blakes's "Songs of Innocence", they have in the past been easier for me to understand.  Their meanings are clear.  And while I might not necessary agree with that message, I can understand it. 
As I examine this poetry as it relates to children's literature I focus directly upon conditioned and learned behaviors.  The selections we considered in "Songs of Innocence" would serve to reinforce the social hierarchy of the time.  They reinforce the master/servant relationship.  They reinforce the idea that humans are made in the image of God by likening human children to lambs.  Unlike goats, lambs are meek, mild  and teachable.  These are appealing qualites in and of themselves, but coupled with religion, the young child learner would be more inclined to want to develope these qualities.  Additionally, after repeated exposure to works like these, the young learner would be conditioned to believe that his or her station in life is exactly as God has preordained.  They expecially would be less inclined to raise objections and question authority.  The conditioning would have been from infancy and would be instilled in them by their very first caregivers and parents.
To some extent, we are all products of our environments.  These factors though are not all environmental in nature, they are deeply entrenched teachings that require an enormous amount of time to be overturned.  And because they have not been overturned our innocence is often lost to our experiences.  This week's readings help us see both the cause and the effect.

Puritan Power

The Puritans had no line of demarcation between their religious and secular life.  Everything for them seems to have been connected to their faith in God and his will for them while on earth.   Afterall, they were, according to John Winthrop, the "New Israel of God" in as much as their sojourn to the new world was preordained and the land that they were to inhabit, reserved for them.  They believed themselves to be the foundation of a new society of people who with God's blessings would represent him on earth.  The Puritans embraced scriptures such as the one found at Deuteronomy 5:33 which says "In all the way that Jehovah your God has commanded you, you should walk, in order that you may live and it may be well with you and you may indeed lengthen your days in the land of which you will take possession."  So it comes as no surprise to this reader that their view of children would also be a godly view, simply put, that 'children are an inheritance from God'.  They considered each child "a precious jewel" and took very seriously their responsiblity to bring them up in the fear and mental regulation of God.  Rather than criticize, I believe they are worthy of praise and imitation.
In the chapter From Alphabet to Elegy in Seth Lerer's Children's Literature book we are told "Alphabetic education was designed for success not simply in commerce or in culture, but in spirit. There was a kind of moral literacy to the Puritan movement, a sense that books could shape lives" (pg. 83).  What this says to me is summed up in the Holy Scriptures at Deuteronomy 6:6-9: "And these words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart; and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.  And you must tie them as a sign upon your hand and they must serve as a frontlet band between your eyes; and you must write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates."  These words resonated with the Puritans.  The ways they educated their children indicates that there was no separation.  They made use of every opportunity to teach their children. That is powerful! I wish more parents realized that to instruct their children morally is to instruct them to be  better readers and writers.       

Fairy Tales and the female audience

I've just spent about three hours reading the required readings for my Children's Literature course which focused exclusively on many of the  fairy tales that I grew up either reading or hearing, with one major difference: they were not the Disney version.  So my initial reaction was 'Wow! was this stuff really for children?'  They only  fairy tale that didn't seem to be modernized or Disneyfied was that of Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood.   However, reading a fairy tale as an adult with the wisdom and maturity age affords, is a very different experience than having read it a young child or even adolesant.  For example, when the wolf invites Little Red Riding Hood to come get in the bed, my mind could not help but to conjure images of a sexual predator inviting a young and unsuspecting youth to join him in the bed.  Moreover, the wolf, like many modern day predators, seemed to have a rapid response for all the objections raised by Riding Hood.  The wolf assures her that everything is okay and her valid concerns are unneccessary.  What was even more alarming was how sly and cunning the wolf was in getting Riding Hood to share private information and so this fairy tale for me seems to be the most timeless of those considered in this week's unit.   I believe Little Red Riding Hood goes a long way in warning naive youngster of the very real dangers lurking about. 
Stories such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, on the otherhand, seemed to espose lessons of what the ideal women looks like, sounds like, and behaves like, essentially, to win/gain/attract your own Prince Charming you must be quite, beautiful, and have a fairy godmother looking out for you.  Unrealistic certainly for our time period, but these fairy tales are still popular today and therefore impact the way young girls conceptualize 'beauty' and indeed their own selfworth.  Fairy tales definetly have a place in children's literature and I find I rather appreciate the graphic lessons that highlight that while you might 'live happily ever after', getting there is not going to be a breeze.

I've enrolled in eng 5992 @ wayne state university and this is my test blog.