Baby Bear - Be Aware

Makes sense to me Ann
I was chatting with Ellen about this as she's in the middle of writing an essay about the way language is used by Ted Hughs in his poem 'Dog' which is written in the voice of the 'Dog'. She then went away and found this which I think could be helpful for us when trying to understand why perhaps people at certain stages of development find the use of animals experiencing human events not 'one-step removed' enough.

Gail Melson has written a Google book called ' Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children ' and in this she explains:
“Children grapple with a complicated, often contradictory, mix of social codes governing animals and their treatment. There are creatures incorporated as family members, stamped out as pests, saved from extinction, and ground into Big Macs.”

Melson also highlights that as adults we have learned to live with these inconsistencies.

(I'm planning to take a longer and closer look at the book and will add more then.)

Also finding this discussion really interesting and totally validates the need to listen to what it is children tell us about the usefulness of certain resources and what works/doesn't works for them as an individual.