shiylos on children’s stories

Many people make a career studying children’s stories as well as folklore. When you investigate their origins, there is often much that we would find objectionable. There are Jewish stories for children which pose few shailos.

If you want to use “cleaned up” folk tales to teach Jewish children, you need to explain what the characters are doing from a halachic perspective (Goldilocks is a thief, but as she is a minor she probably isn’t liable, and if the bears and her are all Yidden, then perhaps it is a situation to discuss hachnasas orchim, and note the stories of rabbanim running after thieves to give them tsadakkah).

Why not entertain kids with stories of tzadikim? They teach jewish lessons and inspire kids to be holy, treat others the way Hashem wants them to, and to be wowed by mofsim instead of fantasies that they’ll outgrow…this is why i can’t stand when some heimishe people teach their kids about the tooth fairy, and call it the tooth malaach. It sets kids up to question real malachim when they get older and realize it was nonsense.

common saychel – Her mother kept her home in Mommy camp, that is why she was never sat down and given a proper talk about safety. That’s why she was wandering in the woods, and she thought the cabin was a clever activity her Mommy read about in the Binah.

AviraDeArah –
Put aside the famous Rav Hutner about Gedolim stories, and let’s say we’re fine with them per se. Let the kids be inspired with our amazing Gedolim. Let them aspire to be like them. Let’s assume we can riase them to be healthy, and we find the right balance, and it will not lead to yiush, instead, when they (almost) inevitably realize how much they do not measure up.
But to the exclusion of other stories? So, all the kids hear about are Gedolim? What’s wrong with stories about regular people, and regular life situations, and regular challenges, and regular triumphs, and (gasp!) regular failures?
And what’s wrong with a kid being a kid and just being entertained? I’m not discussing secular literature here, but you jump immediately to “Gedolim stories”?
I love Gedolim stories. I read them to my kids. But this? Not a healthy attitude.

BTW – On the sbject of fairy tales, someone write to R’ Wolbe, asking him about stories for children that have elements of fantasy, and he says he’s not sure about it.

Q: Why not entertain kids with stories of tzadikim?

A: Because most young children don’t find such stories “entertaining”.

It’s good to read stories about regular people who became great.
Remember: “”It is our choices, Herschel, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”

The Rebbe Rayatz wrote:
עיקר גדול בהדרכה לקטנים, לתת להם סיפורים טובים מהנהגות צדיקים.. להשגיח עליהם שיקראו זה בשימת לב, ולבוחנם אם יודעים מה שקראו, ולהרגילם לספר במתינות ובסדר כל מה שקראו, ואחר כל סיפור שיקראו – נחוץ להסביר להם את המוסר-השכל ביראת שמים היוצא מסיפור זה

It’s interesting, because this happens to be the style of the PJ library books (l’havdil).
Every story finishes off with a discussion that the parents should have with the kids about the “morals” from the stories (caring for the environment, complimenting your pets (“nice tail!”), “tikkun olam” (their warped version), racial diversity, etc.).

If the goyishe world is using children’s books to brainwash kids with their warped morals, we must counter it full force by telling them Yiddishe stories with Jewish morals.

common, I let my kids read some of these stories, and I recall commenting on Goldilocks and bear behavior in a similar way. If I would be sure that they’ll never hear any goyishe narratives in their life, I could have skipped it. I think kids need to learn critical thinking and be able to look at “accepted” narratives and see through them.

As to Jewish stories, kids loved many of them. Some of their favorite ones, they, with sadness, put away in the basement after more information came out about the author.

A good Jewish book on developing critical thinking is “another side of the story”. IT consists of short vignettes describing a moment where someone clearly looks guilty and then explains it. You can use it like Harvard Business Review cases – read the first part, and then try to find the explanation together.

Also, many people question “stories of tzadikim” that whitewash lives of gedolim and create unrealistic expectations of how making of a Gadol happens …