Indoctrination Fridays: ‘Three Little Pigs’ Slaughtered by Leftists

by Kyle Olson

This is one part of a running series entitled “Indoctrination Fridays,” a weekly review of leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum, much of it geared towards elementary students.  For more of the series, please visit PublicSchoolSpending.com.

Leftist educators will take just about anything and turn it on its head to fit their agenda.  Even children’s fairytales don’t escape the slaughterhouse.

Ellen Wolpert, a longtime “early childhood educator” in Massachusetts, penned an article entitled, “Rethinking ‘The Three Little Pigs.’”

You’re probably familiar with the story: a big, bad wolf threatens to destroy the homes of three individual pigs. There’s a lot of huffing and puffing on the wolf’s part, but he can only blow over the two homes that were constructed with straw and sticks.

The house standing left standing is made of brick, leaving readers to conclude that careful planning and hard work (as represented by the brick house) leads to success. The pigs’ definition of success, of course, is to avoid being eaten by the wolf.

That’s how normal, well-adjusted people interpret the story. But Leftists, by and large, are dour, unhappy people who see oppression and bigotry around every corner. So it’s no surprise that Wolpert sees a dark and malicious subtext to the simple fairy tale.

“I first became aware of the story’s hidden messages when we were doing a unit on housing at my daycare center,” Wolpert writes in the article. “As part of the unit, we talked about different homes and the many approaches to solving a basic human need: a place to live.”

Having been properly “sensitized by the movement for a multicultural curriculum,” Wolpert began to realize that:

“ … one of the most fundamental messages of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ is that it belittles straw and stick homes and the ‘lazy types’ who build them. On the other hand, the story extols the virtues of brick homes, suggesting that they are built by serious, hardworking people and are strong enough to withstand adversity.

“Is there any coincidence that brick homes tend to be built by people in Western countries, often by those with more money?  That straw homes are more common in non-European cultures, particularly Africa and Asia?”

Who knew the story had such a hateful, Eurocentric message?

If parents and teachers persist in filling their children’s heads with such trash as “The Three Little Pigs,” Wolpert offers some strategies for mitigating the damage:

“One might explain, for example, that in many tropical areas straw homes are built to take best advantage of cooling breezes.  In some areas, straw homes are on stilts as protection from insects and animals or to withstand flooding.

“Such a perspective then becomes part of a broader process of helping children to understand why homes are different in different parts of the world – and that just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s inferior.”

Sure, tell that to the first little pig and the second little pig.  They may appreciate Wolpert’s “broader perspective,” but that doesn’t change the fact that because they wanted to “dance and sing” they almost became the wolf’s dinner.

By why stop there? Perhaps Wolpert could revise the story so in the end, the pigs welcome the wolf, commune with him, and help to understand why he would want to eat them.  Perhaps they could dialogue with the wolf about tolerance and multiculturalism, and if they’re really successful, they’ll turn him into a vegan.

I’m sure the Left would like to see rework most of our cultural heritage to promote its agenda. But if they move too fast and reach too far, the people will push back. As with all other leftist agenda, one small step at a time.


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Posted Jul 29th 2011 at 3:46 am in Education, Featured Story | 165 Comments