Argumentative Research Paper: Should children read fairy tales?

Essay by takito November 2006

download word file, 9 pages 4.7 2 reviews

Downloaded 313 times

Fairy tales picture a world filled with magic, love and the triumph of the good over the evil. Fairy tales are a window to other worlds where the wildest dreams can come true and the hero always lives happily ever after preferably paired with his loved one. Although some people argue that fairy tales are full of stereotypes, filled with frightening monsters and promote racism and sexism I believe that they are wrong because fairy tales provide valuable moral lessons to children, teach them other countries' cultures promote the imagination and the cognitive development and therefore they should be read to young children.

As a first argument, supporting that fairy tales should be read to children, it must be mentioned that fairy tales and stories in general, help to develop the young people's imagination and therefore their cognitive development, which will be useful to them throughout their lives. Also, that the children can use their imagination to learn from something they're being told and haven't experienced directly.

Researches have proved that, and more specifically a research made by two professors of the Ohio University where they suggest that when young children listen to a story from an a person, they can later be able to produce their own stories. According to Piaget (1970) this ability to create their own stories leads to cognitive development. When children want to tell a story they must attempt first to do it mentally. Therefore by exercising the ability of story telling, the children are developing their mental abilities and skills and are working on their imagination (Geist Eugene, Jerry Aldridge 5). All these mentioned above, prove that the reading of fairy tales to children help the development of their minds, the advancement of their imagination and their story structuring skills. Additionally, in the article...