By Cynthia Gaw
What opportunities might open up to us in a time of more togetherness and less busyness? Let’s enjoy the privilege of staying home and use our time well. Why not read aloud to your family a book your child will never read in school, a book that can function as contrast to the worldliness by which your children are surrounded outside your home, a book providing a rare insight into an uncommon theme for children, the love of law.
If your child has seen the Disney movie, The Jungle Book (1967), he or she is at a great disadvantage. Kipling’s great work of children’s literature is perverted by Disney. The Disney version is bad ideas made cute. Kipling’s Baloo, for example, is the teacher of the law because he loves Mowgli and all wolf cubs. By him we learn to love the law and appreciate its wisdom. We see clearly the necessity of law, not as a means of salvation, but as a source for peace and harmony in a fallen world, “the jungle.” The law is a key to wise, respectful, and long life. Disney’s Baloo is an indulgent teacher who advises Mowgli to take it easy, not work too hard, to feel entitled because without effort “the bare necessities of life will come to you.”
Baloo is probably the main reason your child will not be read The Jungle Books in public school. In the controversial opening to “Kaa’s Hunting,” Mowgli is cuffed by Baloo. This cuffing turns out to save Mowgli’s life. But, of course, at first Mowgli is offended by it. He rejects relationship with Baloo for a time and turns to the companionship of the Bandar Log, the monkey people who have no law. This is Kipling’s explanation of Proverbs 1:8-19. The lawless are nice; they flatter, and Mowgli almost dies because of falling in with them. Even Bagheera questions Baloo’s degree of severity. Kipling is thus seen by the politically correct to justify child abuse. If he is doing so, he does it exactly as it is done in Proverbs 13:24.
Another reason your child will not be read The Jungle Books by the politically correct is because Kipling is seen by them as a “colonialist.” Although Kipling prefers India to England, he is patriotic. Kipling is a British Victorian who never really comes out with a clear condemnation of colonialism; he is therefore unforgivable to the contemporary politically correct. It may be that Kipling is misunderstood or that he has a cultural bind spot like the rest of us, but he certainly writes with a deep appreciation of cultural diversity. Mowgli must learn to communicate with all the peoples of the jungle in their own language. Kipling’s most autobiographical character is Kim (in a novel by the same name), and he is heroic precisely because of his multicultural facility. Kipling sees some wisdom in all cultures, but he sees God’s morality as a standard for all cultures. He is dismissed then by many critics as an ethnocentric bigot.
By reading aloud as a family, you will be fighting the lie that children learn and socialize best in large homogeneous groupings rather than small, intimate heterogeneous ones; that is, in families. If a children’s book is not interesting to adults, it’s not a great children’s book. And even the toddler playing with blocks on the floor in your midst is given a great feast of language, in his or her greatest time of linguistic need. And this toddler will not just learn the sound of great prose, but also to appreciate great poetry. Read aloud well or use an audiobook [My favorite is the Borders edition narrated by Patrick Tull], and follow along in an open print book; for children need to learn today, more than ever, that the authoritative source of truth is in the written word. God has chosen the Holy Scriptures, not YouTube clips, to communicate authoritatively with us. All media are not equal in His eyes.
Please don’t forget at least some of the other, non-Mowgli, stories, and talk about them. Read, for example, “The White Seal” and ask, “How is Kotick like Jesus?” After reading “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” one might ask, “Why is the mongoose heroic?”
No places to go, less distractions, fewer demands, and bored children are all wonderful circumstances. Embrace and capitalize your moments of God-gifted opportunity!