During our tutorial this week we
searched for children’s storybooks on the Internet and critiqued them on any
implied or hidden messages, bias and stereotypes they might have within their
text. The story I chose was “The Gruffalo” children's book written by
writer and playwright Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The
book’s target audiences are children aged three to seven years old.
The story is about a little brown mouse
that eludes being eaten by several predators as he walks through the woodlands,
by deceiving them with accounts of an eccentric monster that he is to meet. The
plot twist is that when the Gruffalo does appear he too has plans to eat the
mouse. The mouse persuades the Gruffalo that he should not eat him but
instead fear him and convinces the Gruffalo to follow him back through the
woods to watch the other predators run in fear. The Gruffalo is not aware of
his reputation and is led to believe that the mouse is the true source of the
creature’s discomfort. The Gruffalo concedes to his craving to gobble mouse and
instead returns to the woods, while mouse is left to enjoy his nut.
The Gruffalo is a story about survival
The story highlights relationship of
size to power. The bigger the animal the more power they have and intelligence
The little mouse, because of his size
has lease power, but he used his intelligence to save himself from being eaten
by the other much bigger animals. Being small he could not afford to be stupid.
The Gruffalo was portrayed as a big
powerful animal, he is the largest of all the animals and has the most power
over them, and he could afford to be less intelligent.
After further reflection and research i
came across a blog with a different perspective of the hidden messages in The
Gruffalo. Another blogger shared that it is a story about the
"analogy of the corrupt nature of celebrity, media and how one can
ultimately achieve one's goals only through deceit"
http://littleliteraturereview.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/gruffalo-analogy-on-nature-of-celebrity.html
Before we had the tutorial discussion I
did censor majority of my own children's experiences. The thought
processes that went into those decisions were not as deep compared to what we
went thru during class. I now understand the learning experiences that we
introduce or engage children in, build on how they emerge as individuals and
how they interact and react to their world. I believe this outcome is all about being aware of the different perspectives that each child might experience throughout their day and as educators it is important to
always bare this in mind, while working hand in hand with the family and
community.
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