Thinking Curious

Quote from Virtues and Psychology

Toasted & Roasted

Book: Virtue and Psychology: Pursuing Excellence in Ordinary Practices

Description of Virtues and Psychology

Virtues For Life

The Book of Virtues 30th Anniversary Edition

Resilience from a Virtue Perspective

Perseverance

What are virtuous people like?

The Ugly Duckling - From Victim to Victor

Jessica Stearns — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 08:00:00 +0000

"... my fairy-tales were just as much for adults as for children, who only understood the ornamental trappings, but only as mature adults can they see and perceive the contents. That the naive was only one part of my fairy-tales, that humour was the actual zest in them" - Hans Christian Andersen’s journal entry from June 4, 1875

The Ugly Duckling is not a simple fairytale. It appeals to children through animal characters, an exciting plot, and beautiful language, yet it also appeals to adults who can perceive the illuminating concepts and abstractions. In this episode, I dig deep into three distinct story elements that weave together to illustrate the complete transformation of our hero: Resilience, Self-Concept, and the Hero’s Journey - ending in peace and happiness for the Ugly Duckling.

Discussion Points:

Hans Christian Andersen and his work
Three story strands that weave together - Resilience, Self-Concept, and a Hero’s Journey
Resilience - how is it illustrated?
Self-concept in the duck yard - rejection and abuse
The 3 stages of the ‘Hero’s Journey’
Andersen’s quote about the fairy tale
Rising above discouraging words and becoming himself
Encouraged by joy and hope
Rescued from the ice by a kind farmer
The ‘hero’s return’ and metamorphosis
A quote from the author
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Resources:

Hans Christian Andersen's Biography

Read The Ugly Duckling

The Resilient Brain

Resilience - Circle of Courage

What is Self-concept?

What is the ‘Hero’s Journey’?

Andersen’s June 4th Journal Entry

The Little Red Hen

Jessica Stearns — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 22:03:52 +0000

The Little Red Hen is a fable with a moral that is helpful. However, the character of the Little Red Hen has been maligned and her story demoralized. In this episode, we are going to take a look at the author and her life, along with the moral and theme of this little fable, to see if we can set the record straight.

The Little Red Hen is an American fable first published by Mary Mapes Dodge in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1874. St. Nicholas was a popular monthly American children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873. Dodge was the first editor of the magazine, and she continued her association with the magazine until her death in 1905.

The characters and structure of the story are meant to teach children that hard work and personal initiative are the foundation of success. The tale is based on a story Dodge was often told by her mother. Originally the other animals besides the hen consist of a rat, a cow, a cat, a dog, a duck, and a pig. Later adaptations, like the illustrated version by Florence White Henderson, often reduce the number of other animals to three- the cat, the rat, and the pig.

Discussion Points:

The Little Red Hen
Author Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge - her era and her life
Fables, morals, themes, and animal characters
Florence White Williams version of the story
An excerpt from The Little Red Hen
John Locke, personal property, and civil law
The hen had a natural right to the bread she baked
Similarities between the author’s life and the hen’s characteristics
Subscribe or follow the podcast and use the link below to The Thinking Curious Review

Resources:

Cognitive Development Coaching with Jessica at Purposed Pathways

The Little Red Hen Origin and Background

A Negative View of the Fable

Mary Mapes Dodge Profile

Mary Mapes Dodge Bio

St. Nicholas Children’s Magazine

Peek Inside An Issue of St. Nicholas

Themes vs. Morals

Get The Little Red Hen illustrated eBook by Florence White Williams

John Locke and His Writing

Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Part 2

Jessica Stearns — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:34:00 +0000

Welcome to episode five of our short story series, continuing our analysis of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” In Part I, we focused on internal and external characteristics and the contrast of expected behaviors attributed to the little girl and the bears. Today, we’ll take a look at “nature vs. nurture” in humankind, through the lens of Goldilocks’ behavior.

The Story: It was first published anonymously as "The Story of the Three Bears" in an 1837 volume of Robert Southey’s writings called The Doctor. The story’s characters and plot morphed through the years, from an unpleasant old woman to a sweet little girl, and from three ‘bachelor bears’ or siblings, into Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear, but the dates of these changes are disputed. Goldilocks and the Three Bears is just an old English fairytale, short and simple. Or is it?

Discussion Points:

Digging into nature vs. nurture
Kenan Malik and concepts of human consciousness and uniqueness
Harvard scientists and biologists and nature/nurture
Being “well brought up”
Purpose and Agency in humankind
Looking for “just right” is a statement of purpose
Security and love are critical for nurture
Neuroscience now sanctions “common sense”
Helping children learn skills that are “just right”
Subscribe or follow the Thinking Curious Review

Resources:

Read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Listen to Part I - Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Kenan Malik Article

Harvard Medical Article: Nature, Meet Nurture

APA’s Definition of Human Nature

Article: What Are Human Beings? Perspectives from Science and Scripture

Cognitive Coaching with Jessica at Purposed Pathways

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Jessica Stearns — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Welcome to episode four of our short story series. In this episode, we begin Part I of our look at the seemingly simple story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The story was first published anonymously as "The Story of the Three Bears" in an 1837 volume of Robert Southey’s writings called The Doctor. The story’s characters and plot morphed through the years, from an unpleasant old woman to a sweet little girl, and from three ‘bachelor bears’ or siblings, into Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear, but the dates of these changes are disputed. Goldilocks and the Three Bears is just an old English fairytale, short and simple. Or is it? You can’t judge a book, or story, by its cover.

Discussion Points:

Judging people by their external qualities- age, skin color, etc.
Childhood views of the story vs. today’s
Irony is employed by flipping expectations of behaviors of bears vs. girls
Re-read the story yourself with the link below and tune in for Part II

Resources:

Read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Read the Story ‘The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether

The System of Dr. Tarr & Prof Fether

Jessica Stearns — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 10:07:00 +0000

Welcome to episode three of our short story series. In this episode, we take a trip through the intense, gothic short story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” by Edgar Allan Poe. Published posthumously in 1856, the story prompts us to ask, “have we given away our responsibility to think for ourselves?” Poe’s protagonist, an unnamed “young man” traveling through France, experiences a confusing scenario in a private insane asylum seemingly headed up by a “Dr. Maillard.” Decades before the term gaslighting was ever used, Poe’s short story illustrated how someone could be manipulated into questioning their own senses, beliefs, and reality.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was best known for macabre and mysterious short stories and poems. He was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in U.S. literature.

Discussion Points:

Jessica was not a big fan of Poe previously
Gaslighting – the word’s origins and meanings today
Poe’s gothic story setting – a private asylum in France in the 1800s
Treating ‘mania’ - Dr. Maillard’s protocol
Questioning Maillard and his gaslighting response
The increasingly alarming behaviors of the ‘staff’ at dinner
We should heed Poe’s message - judge for ourselves what’s going on in the world
Re-read the story yourself with the link below

Resources:

Gaslight - Story of the 1938 Play and subsequent productions

“Madding Crowd” Reference: Tréguer, Pascal. “Meaning and Origin of ‘Far From the Madding Crowd.’” Word Histories, 12 Sept. 2016, wordhistories.net/2016/09/12/far-from-the-madding-crowd

The Emperor's New Clothes

Jessica Stearns — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 11:00:00 +0000

“Have you read a story when you were younger, and later, read it again, and discovered something more profound than what you had understood at first?” In this episode of Thinking Curious, I discuss my reflections after re-reading the 1837 Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” I’ll share my thoughts on Andersen’s clever use of immaterial human qualities such as free will, consciousness, and agency, and ponder the concepts of ‘willful blindness’ and ‘turning a blind eye.’

Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875) was a Danish author and prolific writer, best remembered for his literary fairy tales. His stories are now culturally embedded in our collective consciousness, accessible to children but also presenting lessons for mature readers as well. You may recognize some of his other famous fairy tales - "The Little Mermaid", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Ugly Duckling", and "Thumbelina".

Discussion Points:

A re-reading of the story yields new insights
From the mouths of babes - the child in the story speaks the truth
How can this happen? The characters made a choice
Free will, consciousness, and agency
Material vs. immaterial human qualities
“Turning a blind eye” first appeared in literature in 1698
Margaret Heffernan’s book on Willful Blindness
Re-read the story yourself or to your kids with the link below

Resources: