Hans dodged and pushed the defenseless witch into the oven. She fought in agony and burned in the furnace! Oh! Boys and girls, what do you think it’s like?
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Children’s fairy tales are the liveliest source from which knowledge about the world comes to children.
The child finds patterns, prescriptions, and instructions not only in the direct words of his parents and other Elders. He hears fairy tales, learns poetry, sings songs, watches cartoons, and, putting himself in the place of the Hero, goes along with him through life. Heroes of fairy tales, like caring nannies, step by step teach him to get acquainted, make friends, put up and forgive; however, immediately gu.e.t, quarrel and kill.
At the same time, having carefully looked through the collections of folk tales, I realized that it is simply dangerous to read them to children without a thorough edition. I believe that most parents with a moral sense will understand me.
Indeed, here are a few passing episodes. Ivan, a peasant son, walks through the forest, enters the hut of Baba Yaga, she asks him: “Hello, good fellow, where are you going?” Ivan answers her: “Oh, you old hag! You first feed a good fellow, give him a drink, steam in a bathhouse, and then, old, and ask questions!
Are you really sure that this is how a young man should respond to an old woman whom he came to visit?
Do you remember the Russian folk tale where a fox hired a carpenter for a bear and built a chicken coop so cunningly that she could climb there every night? I also condemn the dishonest fox, but how should I read to children a fairy tale in which the bear, having learned about the fox’s tricks, “unwound it over bumps” (in one edition) and “killed” (in another literary edition)?
If the Russian people believe that this is how it should be, then I cannot agree with this and would not want my children to learn something similar.
Or here is the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm «The Flint». Mom reads to the kids in a calm, measured voice: «The soldier got angry and ate the old woman’s head.» Like this. He got angry, decided to kill the old woman, took out his saber and cut off her head. It’s not even hooliganism, it’s murder, passing under the Criminal Code of any country.
But mom continues to read the fairy tale about the hero-soldier, the kids listen to her and learn what to do when you get angry.