If you enjoy the way stories are taught on The Literary Life Podcast (currently #1 in homeschool podcasts), or are tired of modern, psychological analysis of books ― or worksheet approaches to literature that suck the life right out of a rip roarin’ tale, this live, in-person class is for you!
Prior to our modern era, in pre-“Enlightenment” times, humans all the way back to ancient times knew how to hear or read a story imaginatively or metaphorically. They knew how to be “enchanted by story,” which Stratford Caldecott says, “is to be granted a deeper insight into reality”. In studying the old stories, folklorists like the Brothers Grimm found that there was a consistent use of story patterns, images, and metaphors throughout the world. Authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis focused on this literary tradition in their own research and teaching, and eventually decided to show it with their own stories.
Despite the efforts of Tolkien and Lewis, our modern culture remains largely utilitarian and didactic in its writing and its use of story, losing the richness and transformation that can come from reading imaginatively as our ancestors did. But all is not lost; we can still get it back! We can learn to hear a story the way the Medievals would have heard it!
In the four days of my Fairy Tale Camp, we will go through a dozen or so of the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm. (I’ll send hyperlinks to the stories online, and you can read them at home before class.) I will teach you story shapes, patterns, motifs, and images used in these old tales. All of which you will discover in the novels that are written in this literary tradition, even up to our day. With each introduction to a pattern and particular images, I will guide you through a reading of a fairy tale, so we can watch together as these ideas play out in the story.
This class is an excellent primer to the way that I teach my literature classes. These cram-packed and engaging four days will help a student be best prepared as we journey through longer works together. It is a way of teaching that is very, very rare today. No worksheets looking for comprehension. No “personal application” necessary. No psychological analysis. Symbols galore, but it ain’t Freud!
The Fairy Tale Camp is completely FREE! Consider it an introduction to my Fall 2025 course offerings, which will be 12-week courses, covering longer works. Students who participate in the Fairy Tale Camp are entitled, during the Camp week only, to register for Fall classes at a 15% discount. (Courses to be announced shortly.)
Please see the graphic above for Where and When. Go to the Contact Page to find ways to RSVP and to get more information.
