by Gisela Koval
“Because of the conflicting values adolescents encounter in a rapidly changing world, they should have the opportunity to trash out their reactions, consider the pluses and minuses, and try to determine where they themselves stand so that they will be better able to deal with ideas of all shades” (Konopka 1973, 302)
Adolescence is a period in life full of changes and new challenges. These two characteristics influence not only teenagers’ behavior but also their attitude towards learning and, to be more specific, towards reading. Because of this, young adults should be exposed to significant reading material which, apart from entertaining them, should offer a wide view of the world. Furthermore, reading material for adolescents should deal with topics and issues related to adolescents’ emotions and experiences as well as problems that may arise in their near context. Taking this into account, Sarah Herz and Gallo Donald (1996), propose that the issues and topics of the stories should be those “that all students can benefit from reading and discussing”
Apart from being characterized by challenges and changes, adolescence is also characterized by the construction of the value system. furthermore, De Vos (2003) claims that “This search for a personal value system is related to the significant mental growth that is a factor in middle adolescence” . This is an important aspect to take into account, especially by teachers, when they need to decide what reading material would be the most suitable for their classes.
Folktales are an interesting idea to help deal with values in the classroom because they offer a positive message and the characters generally have to take decisions and behave according to their values in life. These stories have been “polished and shaped throughout time, and only the best, the most relevant, and often the most appropriate have been passed down through the ages and set in print”(De Vos, 2003).
There is great variety of folktales to work with; “Crow brings daylight” is one of them. “Crow brings the daylight” is an Inuit myth featured in “ Land of the Midnight Sun”, a concert band piece composed by Vince Gassi. This is the story of an adventurous Crow who travels back and forth between the northlands and the south. In one of his travels, the Crow meets an Inuit community who does not know about the existence of daylight and promises them to bring some of it.
Although the plot of the story is fictional, it can be related to the student’s personal experiences. They surely have been involved in similar situations in life: to lie, to tell the truth, to take the decision of helping somebody or not and to take a risk in order to achieve a goal. So, they can debate about this issues which are connected with values and behavior. In this context, this essay will demonstrate how, by reading a folktale: “Crow brings the daylight”, adolescents can learn more about values, reflect upon them and their own actions
Values and folk tales
The main character in “Crow brings the daylight” is a bird with a well- defined attitude: he is willing to help. He promises the Inuit people to bring some daylight for them to enjoy, as they live in the North , in a constant darkness. To achieve his commitment, the Crow travels to the Southlands, to a village where there is always daylight. In order to get some daylight for the Inuits, he has to lie and cheat on a child. In the end, he gets what he wants from the southern village. The Crow arrives to the Inuit community with the promised daylight, but he does not tell anybody about what he had to do to get it: to lie, to cheat and to fool a little boy.
When The Crow is asked to bring daylight to the Inuit community he says: "I am too old, […] daylight is very far away. I can no longer go so far”. But the pleadings of the people make him reconsider, and finally he agrees to make the long journey to the south. Adolescents can be involved in these kinds of dilemmas many times; they have to consider whether to take a risk or not in order to achieve a goal or not. Both, adults as well as adolescents can be involved in this situations, but adolescents will be the ones in taking more time to decide and maybe the ones in considering the situation more in depth because of their lack of experience.
Besides, De Vos (2003) states that “they may imitate adult’s behavior or may follow others’ pieces of advice”. With reference to this, Scharf (1978), in his review of Kohlberg’s conventional level of moral judgment, states that young adults during early adolescence have fixed definitions of social duty, confirm with firm social rules, and a respect for formal authority” [...]. Apart from this, rejection is a critical step for young adults in the process of defining themselves an autonomous value base”. Taking Scharf’s ideas into account, it could be said that “Crow brings the daylight” could help adolescents to recognize the positive side of helping and may offer “insights into the motives and pattern of human behavior” ( Ibid); the story will be showing and highlighting good behavior
In addition, the protagonist of the story has another and contradictive well-defined characteristic of personality: ambition. On the one hand he is willing to help, on the other hand, he is willing to do it at any cost. That is why when he arrives to the Northlands he encourages a little boy to lie to his father . The crow encourages the boy to lie by whispering in his ear:"You want to play with a ball of daylight”. The boy repeats the phrase to his father and gets what he wants. In that way, the Crow gets the precious light he needs for the Inuits. Then The Crow whispers again: "You want to go outside to play”. The boy echoes his words to his father and again gets what he wants. While being outside, The Crow seizes the ball of light from the kid and flies away to the South. This particular passage of the story can make adolescents reflect upon cheating in order to get what they want. It can make them “organize and evaluate attitudes and ideas to build their own value system” (De Vos, 2003). It can also help them to be critical about their own actions. Being critical, in this context, will mean to “bring more rigorous analysis to problem solving” (Pennycook, 2001). This analysis can be openly carried out in the classroom as a post- reading activity in order to exchange thought and share different ideas. A very clear and appropriate example to illustrate this, are debates. If teachers involve students in debates, they will give them the possibility to express their point of view about a particular subject. In debates, students can express their opinion about the actions carry out by the main character of a story ; they can question themselves what they would have done, or if they would have done things in a different way. Students can discuss for example what they would have replied to request of Inuit community; in that specific situation The Crow says "The daylight is very far away. I can no longer go so far." In another passage of the story, The Crow encourages the boy to lie to his father by whispering in his ear: “You want to go outside to play.”, in this case students can be asked if they justify the fact of cheating somebody in order to get what they want. These examples can be closely related to young adults’ everyday life because they can be involved in similar dilemmas and in that way they can express their opinion easily.
It is also important to mention that “One of the major tasks confronting young adults is the development of a sense of personality”. This search involves deciding “what is important or worth doing and formulating standards of conduct for evaluating one’s own behavior as well as the behavior of others.” (De Vos, 2003). ‘Crow brings daylight’ may help in this searching , because it exposes certain behaviors that can be analyzed and examined in order to get the learning of positive aspects in life.
Many people believe that folktales open a door to a world of values. They are not wrong since folktales involve characters who have to take decisions, to act according to their feelings or, in some case, to their convenience in order to get what they want to . They are useful to work with values in the classroom because “Young adults examine the values [...] they have accepted uncritically and absorbed from their adult role models and accept, discard and remold these values until they have established a value system that reflects the person who they are becoming( De Vos, 2003). Folktales can offer young adults models and examples of behavior, thinking and reasoning. “Crow brings daylight” fulfill all these characteristics. Teachers can guide students through different activities in the classroom in order to give them the possibility to express themselves ; but, they are the ones who will construct day by day, story after story and experience after experience their own value system.
References
- Kanopka, 1973, as cited in De Vos Gail, 2003.
- De Vos, Gail, 2003, “Storytelling for young adults”, chapter 1: “Storytelling and the young adult”
- De Vos, Gail, 2003, “Storytelling for young adults”, chapter 2: “Telling the tales”
- Herz, Sarah and Gallo, Donald, 1996, “From Hinton to Hamlet: Building bridges between young adults literature and the classics”
- Scharf, 1978, as cited in De Vos, Gail 2003
- Pennycook, Alastair, 2001, Critical applied linguistics- A critical introduction.
- “Crow brings daylight”, wwwamericanfolklore.net
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