Tell Me a Story

(edited from Facebook post November 3, 2022)

A season of lengthy recovery [fall 2022] has given me the luxury of more quiet time to cross stitch and piece quilt, thus supporting my shameless movie watching habit. Or perhaps it's the other way around; I cannot pick.

Last night, as I pieced millions of 4 1/2" 9-patch squares (actually 112), I watched the original Pollyanna starring Hayley Mills, one of the sweetest nostalgic places of my childhood.

I watched this guileless little girl move from situation to situation, simply being good, and in so being, changing the world. Okay - not THE world - but the world around her - the hearts of the people around her. Simply by being good to others.

I always cry when I watch Pollyanna, because that's how I roll. But last night, as I watched this sweet story of a good little girl, I cried for a different reason: our culture is destroying this important part of children's education.

I've been blessed with instant grandmahood-dom; in March my dear son married an amazing single mom, and suddenly, her sweet little boys are mine.

One of the things I most dearly wish for them is to encounter such children as Pollyanna, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Mary Lennox, Meg & Charles Wallace Murry. So, imagine - I am the grandma who gives them books.

It's so very important to expose children to literature filled with other little children who make good choices, who are kind to others, who are courageous even within a childhood sphere. The best children's literature introduces such children to real children, and sparks an important question in their minds: what if I can be that kind of kid?

If encountered through childhood, the influence of this kind of literature helps children enter adulthood determined to be that kind of kid for the rest of their lives.

To leave such literature out of education hasn't been simply neglect or an oversight. It's been a deliberate strategy to create a pernicious vacuum, devoid of reality or truth. It's in such a vacuum where things that aren't real or true can be more readily accepted. I mourn what has happened to the field I studied - English education - though even when I prepared for a career in it, the vacuum creation was already well under way.

One of the most crucial things parents can do for their children is to expose them to great literature - "old-fashioned" literature. The most timeless stories portray ordinary children behaving in extraordinary ways - with ordinary virtues like kindness and loyalty - and with extraordinary virtues like courage and sacrifice.

Among my favorites:

Pollyanna - Eleanor H. Porter

Little Lord Fauntleroy, Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

Freckles, Gene Stratton-Porter

Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter

Little Britches, Ralph Moody

Heidi, Johanna Spyri

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle

Number the Stars, Lois Lowry

The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart

Those who know me well know I can play this game all day. And for the record - the Disney version of Wrinkle in Time could not be wronger. Just... NO.

Stories matter. Goods stories matter the most. And good stories well told... are magic.

And better than giving these books to your kids? Read them together. This will set the stage for some of the sweetest and most important conversations you'll ever have with your children. The memories that tug on my heart the very most - like Emily in Our Town [Thornton Wilder] - are the tender memories of reading stories that matter to my children, and seeing an old story through their fresh, young eyes.

I didn't waste a single moment reading to my children - even when they were older. Maybe especially when they were older. I was investing in the forging of their characters, and the promised dividends are truly priceless, seen in perpetuity through the rest of their lives.

Madeleine L'Engle wrote:

“We can surely no longer pretend that our children are growing up into a peaceful, secure, and civilized world. We've come to the point where it's irresponsible to try to protect them from the irrational world they will have to live in when they grow up. The children themselves haven't yet isolated themselves by selfishness and indifference; they do not fall easily into the error of despair; they are considerably braver than most grownups. Our responsibility to them is not to pretend that if we don't look, evil will go away, but to give them weapons against it.” (Madeleine L'Engle, Circle of Quiet)

Great books full of great stories - with simply good children in them - is such a weapon. Reading them aloud further strengthens and forges the greatest weapon - virtue. Great literature will help create more people in the world who know the importance of being good - for goodness' sake.