False Heroes and Class Envy

I may as well add this in here. I actually snatched this from my other blog. I like to comment on Children's books and entertainment. Soon I'll blog about some great books I found today.

A Hero according to the American Heritage Dictionary is a person noted for feats of COURAGE or NOBILITY of purpose; it may also be a person noted for SPECIAL ACHEIVEMENT in a particular field. The use of the word hero amongst the American media and among the general populace has bothered me for a very long time. It seems that we have lost sight of what the word means. Now everyone can be and is a hero. All you have to do is show up and do your job and suddenly you are a “hero”. It is part of our constant abuse of terminology that really serves no purpose but to make everyone feel good about themselves. It even turned me off after 911 when everyone in a uniform who happened to be doing their job was called a hero. Many of those men and women were, but many were not – they were just doing their jobs. Enter Disney’s HIGGLYTOWN HEROES where even the pizza man or a pet shop owner are heroes, just for doing their jobs. Here is the abuse of the word at its worst! Good googly moogly! All we have to do is get some $5 an hour job, show up for work, and do what we’re paid to do and “voila!”—instant HERO status. Oh, to live in Higglytown. Well I, for one, and my son, for another, will NOT reside there. Instead I will read him books about real heroes and let him know that in his lifetime he may or may not become a hero, but it is good to appreciate those who are – and it is good to know how to recognize them.

Let me now take aim at another of my “favorite” Disney shows; PB and J Otter. PBand J are otters that live on a riverboat with their parents. They are relatively nice “kids” and usually spend the show learning about being nice or well mannered. While they are not perfect, they learn their lessons quickly and move on. It is often stated or implied throughout the program that the Otters are not rich, but they are happy. A nice point to make. Enter the Snooty family – “friends” of the Otters. The Snootys are, you guessed it –RICH. Let’s face it. Aren’t all rich people snooty? Why not give them a name that befits them? The children are basically brats, but sometimes come to spend time with the poor otter family who teach them about being nice and how wonderful it is to be poor. UGH! Class envy at its worst! Thanks Disney. I think we’ll pass on that one too. We are far from rich, but I refuse to teach my son to make such shallow judgments about people.

Finally, can we talk about “Rainbow Fish”? This is a book about a fish with beautiful scales. He is also happy with his scales (perish the thought). However, the other fish in the ocean are envious and refuse to be his friend – no reindeer games for Rainbow fish. He becomes lonely and sad. Gee when I was growing up, I would have been told these fish were not worth being friends with anyway. Hang tough, there were some other fish in the sea! But this is no longer politically correct. This story has a new and more sinister ending. What does Rainbow Fish do to get some friends? He gives each of those fish one of his scales!!! Now Rainbow Fish is popular—and he looks as common as everyone else. He has friends because he gave them his stuff! Now THERE’S a lesson I want my son to learn. If you have something someone else wants and he won’t be your friend unless you give it to him, by all means, give it to him. Yeah, right –he’ll be a GREAT friend! Those are just the kind of people I want my son to hang with. (snort!)

Yeesh! I much prefer the “horror” involved with Grimm’s Fairy tales that taught children about good character to the new mushy tales of today that fill our children full of class envy and false “heroes”.

Here are the mommy and daddy. 

Big K 

And so it begins........

I've started this blog to record the learning activities of my family. My son is 19 months old and we will be homeschooling. However, better sooner than later. The learning has already begun, so I consider myself a homeschooler. More later!