They need food. They need water. They need safety. They need security. They need a new bike and more Robux for their Roblox account.
There are all the things we talk about our kids needing, but too often in our modern world we forget something essential. We forget it because it feels old-fashioned. Or it’s not politically correct or not scientifically accurate. It’s not conducive to the classroom model…or a world where everything is digitized and byte-sized—but they need it because humans need it.
“We need stories like we need food and water,” the great David McCullough writes in his amazing little book, History Matters (available here through The Painted Porch). “Consider that for nine-tenths of all the time that anything like humans existed on this planet, all of their information, all they knew about who they were and how to survive, came to them through stories passed down generation after generation.”
We have done ourselves and our children a grave disservice by puncturing every myth and subjecting every story to the lens of political correctness. We did them a graver disservice still when we made school about what was testable and trackable, instead of what it’s supposed to be—a way of conveying the wisdom and ideas and values that you need to be a good person in a difficult world.
McCullough writes that we become something less than human when we ignore this part of ourselves, the part that needs and craves stories, that is part of a tradition of stories. Well, that’s exactly what’s happened to our society. And it’s what will happen to our children if we fail to raise them in a world of stories, of literature, of myths and legends and heroes and histories.
P.S. If you’re looking for stories that your children will enjoy and learn from, I’ve written two illustrated fables based on the lives of the Stoics:
The Boy Who Would Be King, about the journey of a young boy who was chosen as the next emperor and, by training himself through philosophy, would go on to become one of the wisest and virtuous leaders in history (much like Marcus Aurelius).
The Girl Who Would Be Free, about a young girl who was born into the harshest life possible, but, through the power of philosophy, liberates herself from slavery and frees the minds of millions of people in the centuries that follow (much like Epictetus).
Grab both at the Daily Dad Store today!
