Jill’s Blog

random rants and raves

Today on Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids there was an interesting modern take on the story of The Ant and the Grasshopper. For those of you not familiar with the classic Ant and the Grasshopper story, here is the original:

The Ant and the Grasshopper

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about,
chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by,
bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the
nest.

“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper,
“instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”

“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant,
“and recommend you to do the same.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; we have got
plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and
continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no
food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants
distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had
collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

The first difference was that the ants were the slothful creatures. Now, that’s a pretty minor change, but it made me wonder “why”. Well, obviously part of the reason is because Miss Spider needed to be the wise one in the story. But I also wondered if this wasn’t a reaction by grasshopper advocates against years of unfair portrayals that villified grasshoppers and exalted ants.

The second change was more disturbing. When one of Miss Spider’s adopted children was upset after Miss Spider proved to him that winter was, indeed, coming (note that the parent had to prove that she was right, whereas the peers’ word was enough— but that’s another post), and he was unable to convince the others. Miss Spider simply told him, “That’s okay. We’ll gather enough for everyone”. WHAT?!? What happened to the moral “It is best to prepare for days of necessity”?

So, what’s the moral of THIS story? Work really hard while everyone else is playing so that you can feed everyone who was too lazy to get off their rears? Don’t bother working because there’s always welfare? What are we trying to teach our children? I’m all for teaching them to be nice and to help others, but I’m totally opposed to teaching them that there is no consequence to slothful behavior. Is anyone else as concerned about this as I am? Or am I completely off base?