More research on the use of fairy tales for teaching resilience to children

page 98 from Happily Ever Resilient: A Content Analysis of Themes of Resilience in Fairytales

.....Paley chose to tell the stories, rather than read them because this allowed children to give input along the way, and as participants, they guided the storyteller to plot twists and resolutions that they could then have control over and reflect upon. Often, the children’s own imaginings were far more frightening than the original stories. One example was a child who had asked not to be told Jack and the Beanstalk “the real way”, but had then suggested that perhaps the giant had eaten his first child by mistake, when Paley and the children discussed why the giant’s wife had hidden Jack and wondered about whether the giant’s wife has a little boy of her own (Paley, 1990). 

Paley reflected: If given enough time, the children will take my questions, good and bad, to the same place: the fate of a vulnerable child surrounded by uncertainty and danger. They caution me about fairy tales, but there is an avalanche of excited responses whenever we discuss them- as if the children have been waiting for someone to unlock the gates to their dreams. (Paley, 1990, p. 155)