Guest Post: Fairy Tales in a Flash: Sharing Stories that Matter--Online Class

Here is a guest post about a new online fairy tale course that is being offered for free to the first 100 SurLaLune readers who sign up.

Hello Fellow Fairy Tale Enthusiasts,

My name is Josh Withrow, and I am a teacher from Vancouver, BC. I've taught secondary English and humanities for the past 12 years, and in 2012 I received my Master's degree in Interdisciplinary Humanities (English Stream). Like many of you, I love watching, reading, and retelling fairy tales. It amazes me that stories that have been around for hundreds of years continue to intrigue and memorize audiences from around the world. But, have you ever stopped to think why these stories continue to draw so much attention? Is it action, the characters, or the look into the world of the fantastic that pull readers into the pages of these stories? While I think all of these characteristics contribute to the lasting success of fairy tales, I ultimately believe that these stories appeal to something much deeper in the human spirit.

The focus in my Master's program was childhood literature--and I did extensive research on the effects that fantasy and fairy tales can have on shaping a child's views of virtue and morality. I write frequently about this topic on my blog, and I was recently asked to speak at Magdalen College in Oxford University on the topic. After coming back from Oxford, I realized that I wanted to create an online class on the topic for a broader audience. Four months later, I released my class Fairy Tales in a Flash: Sharing Stories that Matter, and I would like to appeal to this wonderful fairy tale community for your help.

I would like to offer 100 people FREE access to this class in order to help me make it the best it can be. And if you like it, I would greatly appreciate your honest opinion and a short review so other people will feel confident taking the course.

Ultimately, the class was designed to give people new eyes for fairy tales--eyes that can see the great potential for deeper discussion steaming from these great stories.

This class starts with a brief background to fairy tales and then goes on to give a more in depth look into eight popular tales. Each fairy tale has a short introductory video that helps illuminate the themes in the stories, and then there is a short lecture with notes. All in all, the course is a little over an hour. I even include the text and an audio reading for each story.

To get an idea of the class, you can click on the link below for a preview. If you like what you see....sign up for FREE (but hurry, there's only 100 coupons). If it asks for a code, use: surlalune

https://www.udemy.com/fairy-tales-in-a-flash/?couponCode=surlalune

Thanks,
Josh Withrow
thewiseimagination.com