The princess couldn't see that the frog was a prince, because the prince was enchanted, suggesting that the real spiritual essence was covered by the dark side of people. Under the guidance of the king, the princess helped the prince get rid of the enchanted clutches, symbolizing that self-awareness has developed to a very high spiritual realm and the door of the spiritual world has been opened.
Steiner explained: Fairy tales are descriptions of the spiritual world. Fairy tales, like angels, accompany our birth and growth, guide our spirit to this material world, enter people's bodies for coordination, and make our life the eternal life of fairy tales' true mind and spirit. For example, Selected Works of Grimm's Fairy Tales has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and is a precious treasure of every child's mind. Teachers touch children's hearts through these fairy tales, which is the outstanding special significance of fairy tales in Waldorf education.
Fairy tales are the crystallization of national culture. In fairy tales, idealized symbolic figures, such as princesses, princes, kings and queens, are created through daily activities such as hunting, chopping wood, picking herbs, picking strawberries and fishing. Fishermen, farmers, shoemakers, masons and other figures symbolizing realism express the traditional way of life, show the original appearance of life and reflect people's ideals and the meaning of life from different aspects through basic human life activities.
Traditional fairy tales collect the essence of national languages and are passed down from generation to generation through oral communication. This oral culture records the most primitive literature and art, and the language of the story is concise, easy to understand and fluent, and there are often children's songs, poems, jingles, music and so on. Fairy tales are the best teaching materials for beginners. Waldorf education gives full play to the traditional oral education. Teachers pay great attention to the expression of language in the process of telling fairy tales and biographies, so that children can feel the beauty of language.
Fairy tales are also the best material to cultivate children's imagination. When a teacher tells a story, he not only introduces the plot of the story, but more importantly, draws a vivid image for the children to "see" and shapes his own image in his mind. Teachers often use puppet shows or puppet shows to perform fairy tales, so that children can fully integrate into the fairy tale world. In the process of listening to the story, they silently look for relevant experiences, imagine and shape the picture, and feel and understand its meaning. At this time, the power of life is "work", which shapes the body from work, and gradually rises to feeling and develops to thinking and creation. It is also an extremely important teaching method for Waldorf education to let children paint and perform according to the contents of fairy tales.
Children cannot live without fairy tales. When they feel neglected, rejected or hurt, they can't analyze rationally like adults, but use their imagination to find comfort from the fairy tale world. Fairy tales can help them open a bright space. They agree with all the struggles of heroes, which are deeply imprinted in the inner world of children. They secretly put themselves on the role of heroes, overcome anxiety, panic, loneliness and disappointment, and create an optimistic image according to their own experiences. Fairy tales can also give children an image of modern social life, and also put complexity in daily life; Simplify the unclear things and help them sort out their inner world and shape their dream world. Therefore, fairy tales are the spiritual milk that nourishes children's souls, the enlightenment of hopes and ideals, and the panacea of life.
Finally, Schiller, a German poet and philosopher, described fairy tales like this: "In my childhood, the meaning told by fairy tales was more profound than that told by the truth of real life."