by Nancy Mugele
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.
~Albert Einstein
I was recently reminded of this quote and it has resonated with me. On my office bookshelf, I have first editions of Anderson’s Fairy Tales and Stories Children Love from the 1930s. They are beloved treasures that once belonged to my mother, a former First Grade teacher and avid reader. The spines are worn but the illustrations are still stunning. Their pages whisper history, not just of stories, but of being passed from one generation to the next — a quiet testament to the power of storytelling.
Fairy tales are often dismissed as simple children’s stories — whimsical distractions filled with magic and talking animals. But behind the talking wolves and enchanted forests lie deeply human truths. They are cautionary tales, moral compasses, and roadmaps for COURAGE, compassion, curiosity, and resilience.
Consider Little Red Riding Hood — a tale about trust, danger, and cleverness. Or Hansel and Gretel, which speaks of resourcefulness and the strength of sibling bonds. Even the darker stories carry messages about the consequences of greed, vanity, dishonesty, and cruelty — all filtered through metaphors that children can understand.
The brilliance of fairy tales lies in their layered meaning. Children don’t just listen to fairy tales — they feel them. They absorb values through empathy. They root for the underdog, fear for the innocent, and celebrate justice.
In an age where intelligence is often equated with test scores and technical skills, I think it’s important to return to Einstein’s wisdom. Intelligence isn’t just data recall. It’s imagination. It’s moral reasoning. It’s the ability to consider other perspectives, to weigh consequences, and to navigate a world that is often as mysterious and unpredictable as any fairy tale forest.
Those beautiful, age-old books in my office? They are more than just a keepsake. They are a reminder — that sometimes the best way to teach children to think deeply is to let them dream wildly. That intelligence, in its truest form, starts with wonder.
So read them fairy tales. Read them twice. And let them believe in dragons — so one day, they will know how to slay them.
