It is through hearing stories about wicked stepmothers, lost children, good but misguided kings, wolves that suckle twin boys, youngest sons who receive no inheritance but must make their own way in the world, and eldest sons who waste their inheritance on riotous living and go into exile to live with the swine, that children learn or mislearn both what a child and what a parent is, what the cast of characters may be in the drama into which they have been born and what the ways of the world are.
Interpretation
Stories shape children's understanding of family and society's complexities.
In this quote, Alasdair MacIntyre emphasizes the importance of storytelling in children's development. By exposing children to various narratives featuring diverse characters and moral challenges, they gain insights into their own identities and the dynamics of parental relationships. These stories, whether about wicked stepmothers or misguided kings, reflect the complexities of life and influence how children perceive their roles within their own families and society.
In practice
In a classroom discussion on family dynamics, a teacher might use this quote to illustrate how stories influence children's understanding of relationships.
Imprisoning philosophy within the professionalizations and specializations of an institutionalized curriculum, after the manner of our contemporary European and North American culture, is arguably a good deal more effective in neutralizing its effects than either religious censorship or political terror
There ought not be two histories, one of political and moral action and one of political and moral theorizing, because there were not two pasts, one populated only by actions, the other only by theories. Every action is the bearer and expression of more or less theory-laden beliefs and concepts; every piece of theorizing and every expression of belief is a politcal and moral action.
Modern systematic politics, whether liberal, conservative, radical, or socialist, simply has to be rejected from a standpoint that owes genuine allegiance to the tradition of the virtues; for modern politics itself expresses in its institutional forms a systematic rejection of that tradition
... the mind must be prepared for knowledge as one prepares a field for planting, and a discovery made too soon is no better than a discovery not made at all.
There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
In the Western tradition, we have focused on teaching as a skill and forgotten what Socrates knew: teaching is a gift, learning is a skill.
By its very definition, civic responsibility means taking a healthy role in the life of one's community. That means that classroom lessons should be complemented by work outside the classroom. Service-learning does just that, tying community service to academic learning.
It has been a privilege to pursue knowledge for its own sake and to see how it might help mankind in more practical ways.
Tell them stories. They need the truth you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.
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