Stories for children and with children

As part of our extension project this year we produced stories, videos and puppet shows for students of EFL in our primary schools. The topic that bound all stories was ‘The Argentina Bicentennial.’ We prepared and rehearsed our stories in class and finally went to visit two fourth grades at EP N°1, in Ituzaingó.

Here is a brief edition summarizing the experience (sorry, but there was no time for a soundtrack):


2010-Profesorado
Cargado por Simud.

The following are some of our impressions about the experience:

As a teacher it’s always exciting to prepare material to deliver our lessons.

This project in particular was a real challenge, because it included a patriotic component that is not usual in English lessons.

We enjoyed doing it and the kids really had fun when we showed it to them. It was pretty stimulating.

(Angélica Santi)

Going to the school to present our productions was a nice experience. Children really enjoyed it and that makes this experience even better. Not only we presented our effort but children had fun with it. I think that this was the idea, that we all had fun while learning!

(Florencia Domínguez)


As a teacher it is always a pleasant experience when kids enjoy the material we prepare for them. When we showed our puppets show to the kids of EPB Nº1 they really had fun with it, they were interested in the show, and they understood the message of the story. It was a great experience and I have enoyed it, too.
(Belén Giamberardini)

And, to top it all off, here's the video produced by one of the groups:

Sexism in ‘Down the road’

by Silvina Rago

Have you paid attention to the people working with you at the office? Are they mainly women or men? Who drives the bus or taxi you take frequently? A woman maybe? The increasing presence of women in the labor market is certainly one of the most noticeable phenomenons of the last century. In the USA, women on the payroll employment grew from 31.6 percent in January 1964 to 49.9 percent in March 2010  and, in Latin America the percentage of households in which the contribution of women is the only income reaches important proportions.  ‘Down the road’ was written by Celia Berridge and published by Kingfisher Publications Plc. Having in mind genre roles in the labor market, I dare say ‘Down the road’ is sexist and discriminatory.

It was long ago when women's place was at home, taking care of the family and managing the domestic world. I have paid special attention to the drawings selected by the author of the book and, she explicitly depicts women as a house-wife, devoted only  to  bringing up children and taking them down the road. Surprisingly, women who don’t have children are doing shopping! Isn’t this discriminatory? Let us be realistic, decades ago it was seen as unfit for women to be in certain professions but nowadays, we can see with our own eyes that women’s labor force is equal to men in many fields.

Going back to the drawings in the book, man's figure is pictured as predominant on labour force. All situations of work are carried out by men, some are digging up the road, others driving a bus; there is no father taking his child down the road. Personally, I know many cases, even friends of mine who raise their children sometimes better than women do.

Despite statistics and everyday-life situations, some people still think of women only as housewives. Having in mind a labor force that has been historically dominated by males, it is hard to admit that women now spend more hours in their workplace than they do caring for their children as opposed to 20 years ago.

[1] http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C374.pdf
[2] http://www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/temas/gender/gestion/accempre/empre.pdf

The Doorbell Rang

by Belén Giamberardini

Every day teachers and parents  have to choose among a great range of  stories for kids to read. Some people prefer stories with  a didactic purpose, some others try to find stories that make emphasis on values. Some people prefer choosing old stories, while some others prefer choosing new ones. But no matter the kind of story people are going to choose, it is certainly true that those stories will reflect throughout their pages the social characteristics of the society in which they have been immersed.

 Among the great variety of  children’s books one can choose is “ The Doorbell Rang” by Pat Hutchins. The story is set at a middle calss family house in which two children have to share the cookies prepared by thier mother  with a lot unexpected guests, all of them being children. In this book, that has been published in 1986,  it is possible to see a middle class family, the kind of house in which they live as well as some possessions they have. However, women seem to have a very traditional role for a book that has been published in 1986.
If you have a look at the illustrations you will see that the mother cleans the floor in almost all pages of the book.

However, it could be said that by 1986 the expected role of the woman was no longer the one of cleaning the house all day long. By that time women shared those kinds of responsibilities with their husbands.

It is also noticeable that the mother is dedicated to looking after her children and cooking meals.

By 1986 women were not expected to spend hours in the kitchen cooking or to look after the kids during the whole day. By that time her husbands, again, cooperated with them in carrying out those tasks.

All in all, when people are going to choose a story like “The Doorbell Rang” for their kids to read, it is significant that they take into account what aspects of society the book is reflecting. If they don’t care about those kinds of things children can get the wrong picture about what they are reading and, worse than that, they can misunderstand the role of their mothers.

About talking houses, tricksters and the power struggle

by Angélica Santi

“Houses don’t talk, you know!”, writes Linda Hayward at the end of “Hello, House!”, her simple retelling of one of the "Tales of Uncle Remus", a well known collection of oral tradition folktales compiled by the American journalist and writer Joel Chandler Harris .

Probably an adaptation of the African cunning rabbit[1], Brer Rabbit, the clever protagonist of “Hello, House!” as well as of other two-thirds of the “Tales of Uncle Remus” and a supporting character in most of the rest, is regarded by some scholars as the best-known trickster in American literature[2]. Throughout this story he manages to outwit Brer Wolf, one of his usual victimized opponents, with complex simplicity. He does so in such a way that readers are almost compelled to reflect upon his doings. And out of this reflection various authors have considered Brer Rabbit as “a revolutionary black figure” from African American traditional lore[3].  More precisely, through this particular story, the power struggle, typical of colonial times, is depicted in a new and improved manner, one in which Brer Rabbit comes out victorious in what could be thought of as a “brain beats muscles” situation.

Historically speaking, the people from the colonies underwent many abusive situations in the relationship with their colonizers. Also within this category, African American slaves needed trickster stories to pass on their experience and knowledge without provoking the dominant white society. And most frequently, these stories focused on oppressed weak characters that used previous experiences and had all their wits about them in order to take advantage of their powerful opponents[4]. Uncle Remus, the protagonist of the mentioned tales, is a vehicle through which this purpose is accomplished using Brer Rabbit and his counterparts with considerable significance.  
However, as feeble as they may seem, tricksters don’t pretend to carry a moral tone. In order to be successful, they would not stop to think about right or wrong. They would come up with any prank to deal with the crisis. Similarly, Brer Rabbit achieves his main objective, to fool his enemy, by performing a trick that best suits the circumstances through lies, stealing, injuring, betraying, humiliating, even murdering. In the case of “Hello, House!”, Brer Wolf is really humiliated after falling for Brer Rabbit’s trick. Another tale places Brer Rabbit at the bottom of a well, a hapless victim of Brer Fox, and develops in Brer Fox rescuing him from the well by asserting that the moon reflected in the water at the bottom of the well is really a block of cheese. Brer Fox jumps into the other water bucket, descends into the well, and, in the process, enables Brer Rabbit to rise to freedom.

Being at ease during stressing times is another interesting aspect of this character’s personality.  It is the perfect complement to brains and the cherry on the cake in Brer Rabbit’s temperament that, together with sensibility and wits, leads him to take the dominant role in underprivileged conditions. This emotional-rational combination is perfectly pictured in “Hello, House!”: Brer Rabbit does not panic when he comes back home and sees the door open. Instead he calmly inspects the surroundings and finally comes up with the brilliant culminating idea of making Brer Wolf believe that the house would talk.

In trying to find a way out of the oppression, the enslaved peoples found it impossible, under that social context, to parallel their masters’ power. They had to get the most out of their cultural wisdom and did so by trickster stories like “Hello, House!”, which contains underlying serious comments of the injustice they had to endure and whose leading roles are performed by animal characters that carry considerable significance. When placed in the stereotypical situation of the weak against the powerful, the weak characters, who represent the black minority, use brains, intuition and prior experience to find a smooth way out of the conflict and outwit the strong ones representing the more educated, resourceful white society.

[1]Harris, T. The Trickster in African American Literature. Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe. National Humanities Center. Retrieved October 25, 2010 from http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/trickster
[2]Kemper V. eNotes.com. 2006. The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus. Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition. Salem Press. 1998. Retrieved October 23, 2010 from http://www.enotes.com/complete-tales-uncle-remus-salem/complete-tales-uncle-remus
[3]Cochran, Robert. (2004, March 22). Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris The Free Library. (2004). Retrieved October 25, 2010 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Black father: the subversive achievement of Joel Chandler Harris-a0117188856
[4]Harris, T. Op.cit.

The Doorbell Rang and the promotion of values

by Florencia Villaverde

The Doorbell Rang is a children’s story written by Pat Hutching. It is very popular among children because of its lively, full-colour illustrations that provide young readers with a meaningful visual context to understand the story. It is also a great tool for teachers because it can be used for teaching numbers.

There are many people who consider that the story contains a moral purpose since it promotes the value of friendship. We can realize this throughout the story as the children of the story share the cookies that their mother has prepared for them with their friends. But although The Doorbell Rang has a moral purpose, which is to teach children the importance of sharing with others, it also promotes sexist values.

The mother in the Doorbell Rang is represented in a traditional female role. She is a typical housewife that is always cleaning the floor, cooking and taking care of her children. This stereotypical representation of women is not positive for children at all since it gives them a sexist message: women can not be equal to men.

This promotion of sexist values in the story is not only represented through the role of the mother but also through the role of the absent father.  In this case, he may be absent because he is the only one who works outside. This is also a traditional view of the men’s role in society which is not beneficial neither to girls nor to boys.

All in all, The Doorbell Rang can not be considered part of the stories in which it is shown a positive, respectful attitude towards gender roles. This story is a clear example that although women and men were able to make changes to their traditionally accepted role in society throughout many years, there is still work to be done.

The great, Big, Enormous Turnip: a story that deals with an important value

by Melina Nuñez

The great, Big, Enormous Turnip is a children´s story retold by Alexei Tolstoy.

It is a very popular story in children´s literature. The main character in this story is an old man, who plants a little turnip. The turnip grows and it is very big, so the old man looks for help to pull it up.

Many English teachers in their lessons and also many parents at home read this story  to their children. They consider this story interesting since the author transmits the value of solidarity to children, which is very important nowadays. Solidarity is concerned with cooperation, and children need to know that cooperate with other people is necessary to live in the society. Solidarity is shown by Alexei Tolstoy in The great, Big, Enormous Turnip as a tool to achieve an objective.

Solidarity is present in the story all the time since the old man receives help from other people and animals to solve his problem and achieve his objective. The reader can notice the presence of solidarity when, for example, the old man realizes that the turnip is very big and he cannot pull it up alone, so he decides to call an old woman. Thanks to the solidarity of the people and the animals, the objective is achieved and the turnip is pulled up. All the characters are together in the end of the story and they share the turnip.

This story is a clear example of solidarity. The author shows the reader that it is not always possible for a person to solve problems alone and that people´s help is useful whenever there are problems to solve.

Family portrait

by Karina Moreschi

Children’s literature can be considered a powerful tool to communicate important values and beliefs to a society. But what is it communicating? Let’s think about a relevant issue as family.

I have taken into account two stories to check this out: “Eat up Gemma” and “The Doorbell Rang”. In both stories a family is shown with some features in common. In the two stories, the women’s role is a traditional one. Mothers devoted to their children, cooking and doing the housework. In “Eat up Gemma”, the father takes care of children in his free day .

An extended family is rendered with the inclusion, in both stories, of the grandmothers. They have an active role within the family helping with the housekeeping and children’s care.

It is well known that this kind of extended family is becoming hard to find in everyday life. Even the stereotype of the nuclear one has changed. Most children, who are the audience of these stories, live immersed in a new model of family different from the ones presented in the mentioned stories.  In real life situations, some of them may coexist with monoparental, interracial or even homosexual families.

Consequently, the recognition of diversity in family types would be outside children’s literature. In spite of the changes operated in the construction of the family, children’s literature remains surprisingly conservative in its aspiration of supporting the archetype of family in its young readers.

It would be a great step foward, just for the sake of inclusion, to leave behind conservatism in children’s literature and accept the diversity of family’s types to promote an open-minded and healthier society.

“Eat up, Gemma”

by Pilar Granda

Before 1970´s, gender roles presented in children´s books were traditional and stereotyped. Families in children´s books were formed by a mother, a father, the children and, in some cases, a grandparent. Although the story “Eat up, Gemma” was written in 1989, it is not the exception.

“Eat up, Gemma” is a book written by Sarah Hayes, which tells the story of a black working class family who encourages their little brown tanned toddler to eat.

In the story, Hayes gives Gemma´s mother a typical position within a traditional family since the female parent looks after the children and she is in charge of the housework. This position is clearly shown in the story and in the pictures. It can be seen that Gemma´s mother goes to the supermarket and she is most of the time at home.

Considering that Gemma´s father hardly appears in the pictures, readers can infer that he works during the week and has the duty of bringing money home like in all traditional families. On Saturdays, he goes to the park with his son and daughter and, on Sunday´s morning he goes to church with his family.  

Taking into account what have been mentioned before, “Eat up, Gemma” plainly reflects a stereotyped family.

“Eat up, Gemma”, more than a story for children

By Natalia Diquech

When thinking about children’s literature we have to bear in mind two important features. First, children’s literature has to be didactic. Second, it has to be fun for children. “Eat up, Gemma” encompasses this two basic issues concerning literature for children. On the one hand, the book deals with feeding issues. On the other hand, the story is entertaining and calls children’s attention. “Eat up, Gemma”, which is retold from the point of view of Gemma’s brother, deals with a color family’s attempt to make their baby daughter Gemma eat. The interested turning of the screw is that the one who accomplished that task is her eldest brother. The book, written by Sarah Hayes and published in 1989, is perfect to be read to children between the ages of 3-8 because its didactic value

However, we need to be aware that “all writing is ideological since all writing assumes values even when not overtly espousing them” (Volosinov, 1929/1986). Even though the book works perfectly for children, when “Eat up, Gemma” is analyzed from an adult point of view an important matter arises. The story, from my point of view, may have stereotyped gender roles.

Concerning women’s roles, there are two characters that we can analyze. One character is Gemma’s mother. She is represented in the story as the typical housewife who takes care of the children and who does the domestic chores. 

In addition, she is the first person who asks Gemma to eat, without succeeding of course. She is not only in charge of feeding her daughter, but also she is in charge of going to the market. In the story, she is seen with her two children buying some fruit.

Another woman character is Gemma’s grandmother. As well as Gemma’s mother, grandma is placed in the role of the woman who prepares the meal and tries to satisfy the male’s taste. “Nice and Spicy,” dad said, “just how I like it.” This was said by Gemma’s father when the family was eating what grandma had prepared for dinner. Taking into account that she is a woman, grandma is the second person in the story who asks Gemma to eat.  This shows us how deeply engage is the idea that women should take care of children.

Finally, in the story Gemma eats thanks to her clever brother’s idea, which consisted in turning a bowl over and arrange fruit round it, but guess who is the person that cleans the mess Gemma has done, If you are thinking about Gemma’s grandmother, you are right.

Evidently, all the things stated above follow the idea that “wifehood and motherhood are regarded as women's most significant professions” [1].  

If we talk about stereotyped gender roles, we need to analyze, if possible, male roles too.  In the book, the father, a working class man, has a dominant position. He is the head of the household and the wage- earner. Gemma’s father works outside the house and provides the money. Apparently, the only moments he spends with his children are on Saturdays when he takes them to the park, when the whole family goes to church or when they go to a friend’s party. This shows us the traditional male’s view in which the father is the income earner and he is not taken as an integral part of children growing process [2].

Although the book is didactic and entertaining for children, we need to bear in mind that “Eat up, Gemma” puts into focus the author’s ideology concerning genre roles which cannot be seen unless the book is analyzed by an adult.

    

[1] Women's History in America, presented by Women's International Center. http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm

[2] Enhancing men’s roles and responsibilities in family life. 

http://cl-t077-040cl.privatedns.com/intercenter/role4men/enhancin.htm

Eat up, Gemma: a change of view in Didacticism

By Bustingorri Guadalupe 

Eat up, Gemma is a short story written by Sarah Hayes and illustrated by Jan Ormerod.  Gemma is a baby girl who refuses to eat her food while everyone in her family asks her to do it. The story is specially designed for little children. However, adults may also enjoy it and reflect upon it.

The story seems to be innocent in its content but, at the same time, it hides an important change in the way in which stories are written for children. Different view changes were arising as regards Didacticism after the 70s. Certain issues such as social- class division, gender roles and racism were discussed and, to some extent, redefined. In concordance with these arguments Eat up, Gemma has a great ideological impact because it represents one of those changes.

It is for sure that ideology is present in almost every human act. Everything that people do is surrounded and shaped by ideology. That is why children literature can not escape from some of the ideas of a certain period in history. Before the 70s, children’s fiction was illustrated and written with white characters and other races were nearly denigrated.

The use of black characters in Eat up, Gemma represents a change of view as regards the negative representation that black people and other races used to have before the 70s. Perhaps the fact that black characters should be included in children’s stories is what really leads Jan Ormerod and Sarah Hayes to include them in Eat up, Gemma. Perhaps Eat up, Gemma is the perfect image of that revolutionary and important transformation in children’s literature. 

As it was mentioned before, Eat up, Gemma is an enjoyable and innocent story for children in its surface, but its content and illustrations are probably based on the different values and points of views that were revolutionizing Didacticism after the 70s. So, as far as I am concerned, Sarah Hayes’s story is a powerful and purposeful exemplifier of what was going to come next in relation to children’s literature and its didactic use.  

"When the Elephant Walks"

Essay by Agustin Lopez 

When the Elephant Walks, by Koiko Kasza is a story about being afraid and how to deal with this feeling. The topic is very common to all people (even the ones who deny it), and especially children, who feel that the new things may hurt them. All in all, the story mixes some entertaining pictures, a structure of events very easy to follow, patterns repetition, and a clear message that will certainly convince the reader at first sight. This message appears on Kasza final comment; "The next time you feel afraid, remember there may be someone bigger than you who gets scared too!."

Although it seems to be, to a high degree, persuasive, the message contains a high degree of irresponsibility in its words. You may think that this is a silly thing, something that does not deserves criticism, but I think this occurs because the story is presented in such a very good way that we feel it is not necessary to look for failures. The message seems to be good also because of the fact that it is easier to look upon others instead of oneself. How many times did you heard the phrase "you are not so bad. Look at him!"? When the Elephant Walks reinforces the same idea. Instead of trying to solve the problem, we compare us to another person in order to feel good.

It is necessary to teach children to be responsible for their feelings. It does not matter if someone is getting better or worse than you. We must start to think about ourselves without comparing our situation with others'.
  

It is a good thing to tell children that they do not have to be afraid, I know, but always with knowledge, with an explanation which can help them how to deal with fear. The comparison with other people leads to the evasion of the problem.