Why The Wolf In Little Red Riding Hood Is Not Bad

Sometimes we don’t think about what we say to our children. How many times have you heard or said, for example, “ Pekka, don’t hit your sister, you’re naughty”. Personally, at least I’ve heard this a lot and said so myself. But what do we really mean by that? Of course, Pekka shouldn’t beat his sister, but calling him naughty may not be appropriate. I think the most important thing to remember is that we distinguish the event itself, i.e. the child’s behavior, from who the child is. It is therefore necessary to be able to distinguish between an act and a person, and to be careful in stigmatizing a person. Take the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood as an example and take a closer look at this topic.

The dangers of stamping and why the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood is not bad

Pekka’s father says something about his son for sure because he did something inappropriate and shouldn’t behave like that. But that inappropriate thing is the action itself, not Pekka. If a child’s actions and behavior are constantly linked to his or her personality, the child’s self-esteem will probably decline over time unnoticed. “You are thoughtless” (about the person) and “That was thoughtless” (about the behavior) are things separately.

This is partly the reason why calling the wolf of the Little Red Riding Hood evil is always so special to me. We associate that wolf with that personality trait (“evil”) because he wants to eat Little Red Riding Hood. Our conclusion is simple: “Because the wolf wants to eat Little Red Riding Hood, he is evil”. Only bad people would do something like that.

After hearing and reading so many conventions, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, Wolf and Seven Little Pigs, and Pekka and Wolf, we have decided that wolves are bad because they want to harm the protagonists of fairy tales. Therefore, we classify them as “bad,” although this may not be the case.

Of course, a wolf is not bad. The wolf wants to eat Little Red Riding Hood just because it is hungry, not because it would be bad. If this were explained to children in this way, their expectations of the world would be more realistic, healthier and more positive. Wolves get a bad reputation in vain! Try to change the way you describe such characters in fairy tales.

Behavior description skills

Luis Censillo the philosophy and psychology, which is often used a very useful concept: uudelleensemantisointi . The origin of this word comes from “semantics,” which is the study of meaning in linguistics. Re-semantization thus means that the description of something is made looser and more appropriate. For example, a child should not be called strange or evasive, but would be “re-semantized” (reclassified) as shy.

Think about how hard it is to get rid of a stamp that has already been given! As psychologist Alberto Soler says, it’s easy to stamp someone or a thing of a certain kind, but it’s much harder to remove that stamp. Soler uses jar labels as a metaphor. Once a child is classified as something (nervous, nasty, smart, helpful, restless, etc.), that label is hard to remove anymore, even if something in the child doesn’t fit. The point, then, is this: be careful in classifying people, and especially children.

People tend to behave in a way that corresponds to the classification or evaluation that they reflect outwardly to others. We tend to accept those classifications. Henry Ford has one good quote in this regard that goes something like this: “ Whether you believe you can or you don’t – you’re probably right”.

Another useful story

One story I like to use to explain what a negative follows from accepting a stamp or role is “ Galton’s walk ”. Francis Galton was a cousin of Charles Darwin. One morning he went to the park thinking he was the most horrible person in the world. He did not speak to anyone; he was just in his own thoughts wondering how awful he was.

What do you think Galton noticed in the people who came against him as he walked? Most passers-by took a distance from him and looked at him fearfully. Surprising, isn’t it? Such is the effect of stigmatizing someone.

Let’s go back now to why the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood isn’t evil. I think there are no naughty children. But still we constantly hear from people’s mouths “X is naughty”. There is always a reason behind problematic behavior.

I do not mean now that any kind of behavior should be accepted (by no means). However, I think it’s important to understand why a child behaves in a certain way. It would be best to describe the behavior with children and students instead of stigmatizing the person.

Think for a moment about the explanations and classifications you use in consultation with your children and their possible consequences. The way you see things may make them see them more flexibly, healthily and openly.