8.3.-PLAN GENERAL DE ORDENACIÓN URBANA DE TOLOSA

complicity

I chose the subversive story because it visits a number of family emotional and relationship issues that children experience: blended families, the questionable notions of mother as the provider and of father as the main-carer, domesticity,

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cleverness, activeness and passiveness, forgiveness, and wealth at someone else’s expense.

Fig. 4.7 The children’s stepmother.

Browne (2008) cleverly places ambiguity in his pictures about the identity of the children’s stepmother that is juxtaposed with that of the old witch (Fig. 4.7); both express verbal abuse towards the children, reflecting dysfunctional family

relationships. I was interested in the transformation of Hansel and Gretel along their liberating story character arcs. Initially their gender roles are stereotypical with Hansel as the leadership figure, and Gretel as the silent follower. As the story progresses Hansel gradually comes to accept Gretel as an equal with her own valuable ideas and skills to contribute. In so doing, the story challenges the macho- male role that boys are often pressurised into adopting. Meanwhile, Gretel learns to overcome her fears and develops confidence in her own abilities, becoming a quick- thinking ‘go-girl’. In Browne’s (op. cit.) final illustration, the father, initially portrayed as uncaring and distant, is transformed into a loving and devoted lone-parent. A BBC report (2017) discussed the significant changes in government legislation concerning the role of fatherhood; from 2003, when only two weeks of paid paternity leave was initially awarded, to both parents equally being granted shared parental leave in April 2015. Despite these progressive legislations towards egalitarian parental caring responsibilities, a study showed how only 1% of fathers had taken

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up the recent opportunity of extended paternity leave. Hence, the traditional rather than alternative patterns of childcare and family workforce earning opportunities continue to be modelled to children and indicate why fathers may not prioritise time for sharing fairy tales.

In this story, due to the emotional turmoil and blur of family relationships and roles that were evident, the following aspects were raised:

Gender identity and emotional themes

Questions Story Activity

I. Alternative gendered

family roles

1. Can you tell me about

the wicked stepmother and the innocent father?

Shape drawing game

In pairs, take turns to draw a triangle and then the other draw a face from the story around it.

Tell one another about your character and how they are feeling.

II. Expectations of gender

roles

2. What would you have

done if you were the father?

III. Family responsibilities 3. Can you tell me about

Hansel locked up in the cage?

IV. Emancipation 4. What was special about

overcoming the witch?

V. Consequences of poverty

and wealth on family life

5. Can you give me a

reason for the stepmother dying?

VI. Gender identification –

agentic or passive roles

6. Which character would

you have liked to have been in the story?

Table 4.6 Questions and activities for Hansel and Gretel.

4.8

Chapter conclusion

All the stories were shared in the state schools; none expressed concern about the fairy tales chosen. The reception teacher from state school A discussed how she aimed to share a wide variety of stories over the whole year due to government guidelines that state reception children need a repertoire of twelve stories. As a result of my questioning, she considered how she did ‘need to challenge a bit more – the ones like Paper Bag Princess, I haven’t used that for a long time – and just think yes I know that story and I now need to use it’. Her uncritical relaxed stance towards gender-neutrality may have been influenced by her perception that men and women were equal, and that she believed this view was reflected in society as

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well. In contrast, in the WS kindergarten, I found that the teachers consciously censored the stories and only shared those that strictly adhered to Steiner’s spiritual science philosophy, anthroposophy, similarly replicating Christensen’s (2003:238) findings. The Willow Pattern story was agreed upon due to its associations with the natural world, particularly the seasonal references. It was strongly believed that stories should come from the heart, and were mainly selected to address children’s immediate social or emotional needs. The teacher requested an email copy of the story beforehand, and after having slept upon it, she wished for some of the story elements to ‘be tweaked’. Through his aphoristic teachings, Steiner (1995:33) advised that WS teachers were to handle fairy tales with care and to introduce only the finest archetypal truths. Thus, to ensure that the story was filled with a ‘quality of soul’, she expressed concern about the ‘stealing’ of the box of jewels and the revenge ‘killing’, and suggested a ‘softer’ ending. Instead, she proposed that the children were presented with a story of a young couple who accomplished something unusual and remarkable. Following the WS tradition of harmony with nature, she recommended the retelling about Chang and Koong-se discovering the practice of using ducks to enhance the irrigation of rice farming. She wished that a bridge of virtuous reconciliation was built with the father; as a result of the couple’s successful endeavour, they were redeemed and invited back home to be happily reunited. Through sharing the story in this way, she believed that it would help generate a healing response, and enable the children to learn about the need for reflection and the virtue of forgiveness that the passage of time can bring. She was concerned that she might be imposing creative limitation, but wanted to embrace the opportunity of how a story could be used as an exemplar of a more united, egalitarian experience rather than being fractured and distressing. Christensen (2003) claimed that the influential stance of the adult critic can act as a moral arbiter towards ideas that challenge dominant perceptions of gendered childhoods instead of a protector of child audiences. The timing of the story was important; the children were then served rice pudding for their break as was customary on that day,

incorporating a multisensory element to the story. As Tesar (2014) argued, the censoring altered the assertive message of the story, about harder familial decisions necessary to free oneself from tyrannical characters and unhappiness. Building upon the co-constructive participant nature of the Mosaic approach, I incorporated the creative ingenuity of the rice farming into my retelling in the state schools, whilst retaining the protagonist’s self-sacrifice for love and happiness over authoritarian patriarchy.

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Against the breadth and vicissitudes of life, the fairy tales chosen aimed to present children with specific imaginary life situations that were both possible and beneficial for them to comprehend. They illustrated contentious virtues needed for all genders to form rewarding relationships and the moral dilemmas to be overcome in

protecting loved ones and outwitting those who seek to harm them. The findings from the children’s responses to the fairy tales and activities are discussed in the following chapter.

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5

Children’s perspectives