Fairy Tales
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Ursula Le Guin once observed of George MacDonald’s masterpiece: “A princess is a girl who behaves nobly; a girl who behaves nobly is a princess. Curdie the miner…is a prince. The king is king because he’s a good man. No other definition is allowed. This is radically moral democracy.” Le Guin’s assessment holds because MacDonald…
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In a modern Grade 7 classroom, to be called a “princess” is rarely a compliment. The term has become a pejorative—a shorthand for selfishness, arrogance, and entitlement. While we might endow younger girls with the title in a spirit of play, we despise it in older ones who are perceived as being “too big for…
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Whether you are a parent, teacher, or grandparent, we have all faced the same dilemma: How do you start—and sustain—a meaningful conversation with a child? The answer is simpler than you think: You have to trick them. I don’t mean this in a deceptive way, but in a “pedagogical” way. Most children (and, let’s be…
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I have a four-year-old son who loves pirates and a two-year-old daughter who loves to dump water on the floor. At any given moment, I feel like I’m on the high seas—and I’m rarely the captain. Puzzles are a mainstay in our house. My son prides himself on 40-piece floor puzzles; my daughter prides herself…
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Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers is a brilliant, bitter examination of the reality of WWII. By following the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima, Eastwood navigates the delicate balance between truth and propaganda, gently deconstructing the “American Hero” without villainizing the soldier. Growing up in America, I was taught the incomprehensible…
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I tell a lot of stories to my classes; it’s how we connect. One of my favorites is about a junior high basketball game back in Seattle. We were locked in a back-and-forth battle for the final five minutes—an ulcer the size of a grapefruit growing in my stomach the whole time. With nine seconds…
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Cinderella, Snow White, and the “Happily Ever After.” Lately, I’ve noticed a growing hostility toward these classic endings. The arguments usually fall into two camps: they are overused, or they are unrealistic. While both points have merit, I don’t think we should disdain the happy ending any more than we should disdain the cold porridge…
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Jeffrey Overstreet is one of my favorite film critics. Whether he is writing for JeffreyOverstreet.com or drafting his fantasy series Auralia’s Colors, he remains uncompromising. Every year, he draws fire for critiquing “Best Picture” nominees that happen to be wildly popular. His response to the “popularity equals quality” argument is a simple, rhetorical analogy: McDonald’s…