Using fairy tales and colour strategies in
primary school in optional lessons.
The
aim of this article is to describe opportunities and benefits of different strategies,
which might be useful in educational process in the primary school.
Tasks
of the article are:
1. To research how fairy
tales and colour strategies improve motivation and educational results in the
primary school;
2. To make and use in
practice the system of strategies which increase knowledge and children`s
motivation;
An exploration of
fairy tales has special value for education. The deep truths embodied in fairy
tales, which depict complex developmental processes and group dynamics, and
afford the means for transforming the pain of psychological wounding into
creativity, continue to offer much to the steadily expanding field of
psychotherapy. Their very brevity, and arresting themes, and imaginative
treatment of significant events allow them to be interpreted, reinterpreted,
and expanded upon in an infinite number of ways to allow individuals to
comprehend their environment and their personal difficulties and to construct
guides to action through enhanced knowledge.
Close scrutiny of
the patterns in fairy tales from such contemporary psychological perspectives
as family systems, object relations, and cognitive frameworks can yield new
insights. As Joseph Campbell stated, “The folk tale is the primer of the
picture of the soul”. An understanding of the dynamics represented in the
journey of the fairy tale heroine or hero that typically lead them from misery
to their highest realization may reveal means for helping clients in their
psychotherapy. Stories are important in our lives. We gain a sense of who we
are through narratives, the telling of stories to ourselves and others about
what has happened to us. We form our identities through integrating our
personal family histories with the legends of our culture. However, when our
stories become habitually sad, rigid and repetitive, they may become the
subject matter of the therapy hour. Because fairy tales and myths follow the
heroine or hero as they go through periods of darkness to transformation, these
classic stories may be said to encode patterns that enable the restoration of
vibrant functioning. Like the fairy tale protagonist, psychotherapy clients
often begin a journey from a black mood of depression or personal crisis, onto
a new path. Ultimately, through encounters with significant others and
confrontation of challenging circumstances, both protagonist and therapy client
may be led to higher development. The path of the fairy tale hero or heroine
has much in common with the ritual process of psychotherapy: Therapist and
client tell and retell, interpret and reinterpret the story of the client. Both
children and heroes have typically had 2 difficulties in the family of origin:
they have often suffered child abuse, shame and humiliation, parental rejection
and /or abandonment. In place of a nurturing caretaker they must live with a
tormentor or tormentors, such as Cinderella’s wicked stepmother and evil
stepsisters, or Snow White’s cruel stepmother who plots to murder the beautiful
girl in order to end the competition the girl’s beauty poses to her fading
beauty. Chance may also contribute to the woes of the protagonist. For example,
in The Girl Without Hands, the father unwittingly makes a pact with the devil
that ends in the sacrifice of his daughter’s hands. In this story, the father
dwells in poverty: his poorness can be viewed as a metaphor for a lack of
emotional strength that can lead an actual father or mother to abuse a daughter
or son. If a child is perceived by a parent as a potential resource to satiate
his or her own unmet needs, then that child’s development, like the hands in
the story, may be sacrificed in the service of parental deficiency.
Psychological wounding, such as symbolically expressed by the father in the
fairy tale who destroyed his daughter’s hands, is often at the core of
psychotherapeutic treatment.
Spiritual growth
is at the heart of every fairy tale: As the protagonist leaves the disturbing
influence of the original family to enter the unknown forest and to face and
eventually conquer difficult challenges, he or she is led to 3develop her
highest potential. During periods of suffering at levels deeper than the pain,
lies a possibility that something sacred within may eventually emerge. Through
the combination of fairy tales with psychotherapy, new sources of strength may
surge from one’s existential knowledge: Though life may be unfair and unjust,
suffering is eased by an awareness that one is not alone. Hope is curative, and
fairy tales especially have the power instill hope by the means of their happy
story ending. According to Joseph Campbell, “Perhaps some of us have to go
through dark and devious ways before we can find the river of peace or the high
road to the soul’s destination.” The symbolic figures and imagery in fairy
tales such as the cruel stepmother, loving fairy godmother, winter darkness, or
lost-in-the-forest, mirrors disturbing inner emotional states. As the
protagonist overcomes trials in differing situations, an individual in
psychotherapy is shown the ways to deal with his or her upsetting affects. For
example, Hansel and Gretel leave a trail of breadcrumbs to mark their way, and
trick the witch into not eating them, offering proof of sorts that strategic
action serves to assure that one does not get overwhelmed by emotional upsets.
For many psychotherapy patients, it is important to learn to comfort and soothe
or to discover metaphorically their own inner “godmother” or “helpful animals”
to transform emotional pain into growth. If a connection to these common
symbols that can be perceived as representing possibilities for self care, then
psychological improvement can follow. The discovery of an “inner prince” or
“fairy godmother” that likewise, can rescue one can empower an individual at
the deepest levels. Redemption becomes possible because of an individual’s
courage to leave the known world of a difficult family and to face inner pain
as symbolized by the forest, in order to eventually discover more nurturing
circumstances. A full encounter with one’s emotions is frequently associated
with recovery. Adrian, a twenty -five year old biologist had been reared in a
home wherein emotional abuse from her mother was commonplace. She identified
with the heroine in Ender’s Game, a novel in which the youngest child in a
family is chosen to save the world from destruction. Ultimately, the story hero
creates a different home entirely. This tale provided the map for Adrian as she
ultimately left the original family that had seemed to threaten her with
destruction, and chose to live her life with a religious identity radically
different from that of her original family. The compassion and support she
experienced within that new culture provided her with an experience that seemed
to her to compensate for the lacks she had felt from early childhood.
Weak and
vulnerable, children eventually become powerful and strong, so clients can be
reminded that painful periods are often fleeting. Fairy tales mirror natural
processes of all kinds, and depict life as dynamic process that constantly
moves between the opposites of darkness and light, summer and winter, weakness
and strength, and poverty and wealth. By encouraging clients to accept one’s
place within the naturally fluctuating universe, one is reminded that painful
periods usually do not last, and that change for the better is likely to
follow. Seasons, such as winter can both be “outside” and in the heart as well.
The use of fairy
tales as positive cognitive reframes may enable children to view difficult life
periods as prerequisites for the development of personal strength that may
ultimately lead to great success. Thus, clients can establish expectations for
positive changes. In classic stories, heroes and heroines embody the truth of
the capacity for psychological wounds to heal. Life is unfair and unjust, yet
compassion toward others may lead to escape from pain, and knowledge that
others share this human condition is comforting. Contrast the beginning of the
story of The Ugly Duckling, wherein “The ducks bit him, the hens pecked him,
and the girl who fed him kicked him aside”....” Even his mother said I wish to
goodness you were miles away” with the ending when “He thought of how he had
been pursued and scorned, and now heard them say he was the most beautiful of
all beautiful birds”. The fairy story reveals the heroine as a model who calls
upon using inner resources to solve problems. According to Carl Jung, we have a
favorite story that goes with us throughout life. By connecting clients to
their cherished early stories, the therapist can highlight the means for coping
and problem- solving and suggest to one still struggling that she too can
discover solutions to problems. Thus the stories serve as important reminders
that can enable one to find inner resources beyond conscious awareness even
when one is overwhelmed by states of anxiety or depression. Readers of fairy
tales can weave every day personal events intertwining their own inner
processes to give more understandable forms to previously inexpressible painful
emotions through the imagery of witches, cruel elder 6 brothers, and
stepmothers. As the fairy tale heroine or hero escapes or defeats threatening
destructive forces, they provide powerful images that can help point those
still suffering towards transcendence. For example, in Hans Christian
Andersen’s The Little Match-Seller, a poor child wanders the streets in
freezing cold and darkness. “She did not dare to go home; for she had not sold
any matches and had not earned a single penny. Her father would beat her and
besides it was almost as cold at home as it was here”. Lighting her unsold
matches at Christmas time to warm herself, she has fantastic visions of herself
as she is warmly nurtured in a warm dwelling enjoying a roast goose feast under
a lovely Christmas tree whose candles are transformed into shining stars flying
heavenward and the child interprets the star flying down to earth as the sign
of someone dying, of a soul going up to God. Striking her last matches, she has
a vision of her dead grandmother who takes the little girl in her arms and they
fly, “in joy and splendor” to be with God. “Nobody knew what beautiful visions
she had seen, nor in what halo she had entered upon the glories of the New
Year”. This tale considered by many to be a sad tale of want and death, also
shows that old, painful patterns of living can die, so that more fruitful new
ways of living can come into being.
Readers of fairy
tales can weave every day personal events intertwining their own inner
processes to give more understandable forms to previously inexpressible painful
emotions through the imagery of witches, cruel elder 6 brothers, and stepmothers.
As the fairy tale heroine or hero escapes or defeats threatening destructive
forces, they provide powerful images that can help point those still suffering
towards transcendence. For example, in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little
Match-Seller, a poor child wanders the streets in freezing cold and darkness.
“She did not dare to go home; for she had not sold any matches and had not
earned a single penny. Her father would beat her and besides it was almost as
cold at home as it was here”. Lighting her unsold matches at Christmas time to
warm herself, she has fantastic visions of herself as she is warmly nurtured in
a warm dwelling enjoying a roast goose feast under a lovely Christmas tree
whose candles are transformed into shining stars flying heavenward and the
child interprets the star flying down to earth as the sign of someone dying, of
a soul going up to God. Striking her last matches, she has a vision of her dead
grandmother who takes the little girl in her arms and they fly, “in joy and
splendor” to be with God. “Nobody knew what beautiful visions she had seen, nor
in what halo she had entered upon the glories of the New Year”. This tale
considered by many to be a sad tale of want and death, also shows that old,
painful patterns of living can die, so that more fruitful new ways of living
can come into being.
Our most important
energy source is light, and the entire spectrum of colours is derived from
light. Sunlight, which contains all the wavelengths, consists of the entire
electromagnetic spectrum that we depend on to exist on this planet.
Light flows through our eyes and triggers hormone production, which influences
our entire complex biochemical system. This biochemical system then affects our
being. And light does not travel alone. Light travels with other energies as
shown below.
Another
useful strategy is to use in educational process different colours. We know
that each colour found in the visible light spectrum has its own wavelength and
its own frequency, which produces a specific energy and has a nutritive effect.
We know some rays can be dangerous if we are exposed to them. But the visible
light, the rainbow, has a soothing effect on us.
Light is the only energy we can see, and we see it in the form of colour.
Our
body absorbs colour energy through the vibration colour gives off. All organs,
body systems, and functions are connected to main energy centres.
Through colour we receive all the energies we need to maintain a health body,
mind, and soul. The National Institute of Mental Health has done studies
showing that our mental health, behaviour, and general efficiency in life
depends to a great extent on normal colour balance. When something goes wrong,
or is out of balance, we can strengthen our energy centres through the
conscious use of colour.
Light
consists of the seven colour energies: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue,
Indigo, and Violet. Each colour is connected to various areas of our body and
will affect us differently emotionally, physically, and mentally. By learning
how each colour influences us, we can effectively use colour to give us an
extra boost of energy when we need it.
If you wake up in the morning with little energy, or you need to prepare for a
business meeting, this is where the power of colours can help. All you have to
do is reflect on the type of day you have planned; choose the colour that will
help you meet the demands of the day; and then absorb that particular colour.
It's like fuelling your system with the right kind of gas!
The
practical application of a specific colour for a bodily condition requires
common sense and experimentation. Generally, dis-harmony that produces a cold,
wet condition requires red. Conditions of a hot, thermal nature require blue to
calm and effect a stabilization of the subtle body in question. Therefore,
contra-indicated to any red condition is the use of a red colour application
such as with sunstroke. The use of red will aggravate the problem. The same is
true of any blue condition; contra-indicate for colds or pneumonia is the use
of cold blue.
Some color therapists believe colours contain energy vibrations with healing
properties. Exposure to a color and its vibrations can be used to assist the
body's natural healing and recuperative powers to achieve and maintain health
and well-being.
The are seven natural colours in the visible light spectrum (rainbow): red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Each color vibrates at its own
individual frequency. In Color Therapy each color corresponds to one of the
seven chakras (energy centres in the body), which in turn can influence a
specific gland, organ, or tissue of the body. for example, the color red, which
corresponds to the root or base chakra, can be used for problems with the
adrenal glands, kidneys, and bladder. The color rays may be in the visible or
invisible spectrum and can be administered through colored lights or applied
mentally through suggestion.
Literature
used:
1. B.Buzuma The
psychology of a colour. S-Petersburg, 2005
2. V.Behtereva The
origin of the children`s pictures, S-Petersburg, 1910
3. http://www.waldorflibrary.org/articles/977-choosing-fairy-tales-for-different-ages
4. http://english-magazine.org/english-reading/english-for-culture
5. http://www.google.ru
6. https://www.pinterest.com
7. http://www.google.ru
8.
http://www.google.ru/url
9.
http://www.google.ru
10. https://books.google.ru/books
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