Dawkins debate: Should children listen to fairytales?
Renowned atheist Richard Dawkins has sparked a debate over the appropriateness of telling fairytales to impressionable children. But could these stories actually help with children's rationality, asks Esther Webber.
"There is a very interesting reason why a prince could not turn into a frog. It is statistically too improbable," Dawkins reportedly said during a talk at a science festival. He has since protested at the way his comments have been portrayed in the media.
Speaking to the BBC, he said that the telling of fairytales had pros and cons. "On the one hand you might expect it would inculcate supernaturalism as real." But at the same time it might have a "beneficial effect" as the child learns there are stories which are not true and which one grows out of.
"A degree of magical content supports imaginative development," says Prof Yvonne Kelly of University College London, "and the transmission of the story is important as it creates intimacy, routine and a bonding experience.
"Children who listen to stories show better results in measures such as literacy tests and SATs - but also in terms of social and emotional development."
(continued, unlike the egghead reading Einstein under the bedsheets with his homemade torch lighting his socialy inept way?)
