These Fairy Tales Put Females on the Leading Edge

Heroines in the stories written by Thurston Middle School students don’t wait wistfully for their prince to come or, for that matter, a fairy godmother to solve their problems.

These can-do characters get right to business--dodging danger, disabling dragons and even cleaning up the ocean.

They are part of the Fairy Tale Project introduced this month to students in two California schools, one of them in Laguna Beach. The program, which promoters hope soon to expand statewide, is the brainchild of female executives at Pacific Bell who three years ago began writing nontraditional fairy tales as part of a leadership training class.

The project links businesswomen and students to create fairy tales starring quick-thinking females who solve their own problems and sometimes even rescue the males.

For example, the fairy princess imagined by 13-year-old Marlie Pappas of Laguna Beach scares off a dragon while, all the while, the knight thinks he saved the day.

“He never thought that a damsel could save him from his distress,” Pappas said. “And she was a really small one too because she was a fairy.”

If all this seems like simply an exercise in feminism, Pac Bell and local school officials say the project’s effects can be varied and far reaching.

While helping children to see females as creative and resourceful, the program also instructs both boys and girls in book writing and publishing and introduces them to the world of animation and video production.

As they hone their writing, drawing and computer skills, the children learn also about editing, marketing, digital photography and desktop publishing.

Although the project admittedly is still in the early stages, promoters have big plans for it, including the creation of books, video games and television programs based on the stories.

“It’s amazing the interest it has created,” said Jan Boucher, who analyzes educational software at Cal State Long Beach, which is seeking students to study the project by measuring youngsters’ attitudes about women before and after they participate in the program. “This is quite unique.”

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The program was introduced this summer as part of the CREATE summer school program, which is co-sponsored by the Laguna Beach Unified School District. Two schools participated, Thurston in Laguna Beach and Arthur Anderson Community Learning Center in Alameda.

Thurston Principal Cheryl Baughn said the project could become a class this fall.

“If we’re able to get funding to support a class, we would offer an elective class at the middle school level, using the Fairy Tale Project as the basic theme,” she said. “I think it’s still possible but we don’t’ have [the funding] yet.”

Dennis Chaconas, superintendent of the Alameda Unified School District, said that Northern California district will continue the program at the learning center this fall and probably will expand it later.

Promoters expect other schools to become involved during the coming school year and, by the fall of 1998, they hope to have developed a structured program that can plug into school curricula statewide.

Seeds for the project were planted three years ago at Pacific Bell’s Women and Leadership class, said Julie Dodd-Thomas, executive director for Pacific Bell Video Services, a Santa Ana-based Pacific Bell subsidiary.

To better identify qualities that mark strong leaders, the women were told to write modern day fairy tales featuring strong, capable women.

“Everyone wanted to read each other’s stories,” Dodd-Thomas said, and one woman suggested that they put the stories in book form to donate to Boys and Girls Clubs and other children’s organizations.

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Searching for someone to illustrate their stories, Dodd-Thomas contacted the Laguna Beach school district board president, Susan Mas, who also heads the CREATE summer school program. CREATE, which encourages the development of artistic and computer skills in youngsters, added the Fairy Tale Project as a pilot program this summer.

The students illustrated the women’s stories and also wrote their own.

The Pac Bell women were dazzled by the students’ ability to push the program forward. When they asked students to illustrate the stories, Dodd-Thomas said, the youngsters responded: ‘ “Do we have to draw them? Could we do computer illustrations? Could we make a CD-ROM?” ’

Some students even began transforming the stories into video games.

“The kids have just taken off with this,” Dodd-Thomas said. “We didn’t have any idea they could create the game without the professionals.”

Alexander Joyce, 12, of Laguna Beach made a video game of his story “The Two Worlds,” about a clever queen who manages to stop a war between two planets before anyone gets hurt.

“I had a great time with it,” he said. “You get to create your own story and to illustrate it. You even get your own book. I think all the kids in Thurston would love it.”

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Instead of writing a story, 15-year-old Jeffrey Packard, also from Laguna Beach, scanned the illustrations onto a computer and then edited the pictures. Packard said he thinks the program should include more art instruction and computer work. Still, he thought writing the fairy tales was “a pretty good idea” too.

“I know a lot of the girls liked it,” he said.

The next step, Mas said, is to evaluate the pilot project and then seek help from the private sector in the areas of publishing, graphic illustration and animation.

CREATE will serve as the conduit to schools, and Pacific Bell will help provide funding, expertise and technology, Dodd-Thomas said. They are now seeking funds for teacher training and equipment.

Meanwhile, the women are looking for a publisher for their stories and talking with broadcast companies about converting the tales into foreign languages and creating television shows based on the fairy tales.

“It’s blossomed into a project that so many people have different visions for,” Dodd-Thomas said. The children have infused the program with new life and could keep it running indefinitely, she said.

“We adults put some perimeters around the project, and the kids have exceeded the boundaries of those perimeters,” she said. “So I say there’s no end to what they can do.”