Goldie-who and the 3 what?

My daughter is in Kindergarten and last night she had homework (don't get me started on homework....that's the subject of a totally different blog). This homework was a worksheet with 8 squares laid out on a sheet of paper, 4 on top, 4 on the bottom. Some of the squares had pictures in them, others were blank. The assignment was to "make a movie" and complete the story that was being told in the pictures. By looking at the squares with the drawings already there, the story was obvious.

At least it was to me and my wife. My daughter however, did not know the story of Goldielocks and the Three Bears.

I was pretty surprised. My brain did a fast rewind through her life a I tried to remember if we had ever read her that story - nope. Then I started to think of the other "classics" and I was coming up pretty empty. Then I started to realize which stories she did know.

Jack and the Beanstalk - only because of Disney's "Mickey and the Beanstalk". Same with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, you get the picture. It was obvious that the only exposure they had to classic fairy tales was through movies like Shrek and Hoodwinks. Yep - movies. And they have even been demoted to satire and lampoon.

The movies they watch have become the new fairy tales. The new stories that kids hold dear. I am not declaring the classics D.O.A, but their foothold in the culture is clearly over.