In class Monday the idea was brought up that people lie to their children about historical events to cover up the not so nice parts that make up history. This was seen in how Barbie gets to have Thanksgiving with the pilgrims and live happily ever after, instead of living the reality and being killed by genocide. This idea of lying to our children reminded me of my job this past summer working at a summer camp. In this one class I assistant taught, Shakespeare Stories, Shakespeare's plays are written for children in a picture book format. These stories always substituted gruesome details with kid friendly plot points. So for example, in the Shakespeare Stories version of Hamlet Ophelia "accidentally" falls down a hill and dies, where in the real story she kills herself.
After helping lead of few of these classes I got really frustrated. These stories were changing Shakespeare's ideas, and when these kids go off to high school they're going to relearn these plays from scratch in order to really grasp the plot and characters. After the class one day I turned to the leading teacher and expressed my feelings and she replied, "What else are we going to tell them?" I don't have an answer for that. But it still makes me angry that we lie to our kids.
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