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The purpose of this paper is to examine the cultural implications of James Henry Pope’s selection of fables for his 1886 Native School Reader designed to teach English to Māori students in Native Schools.

The essay takes a historical approach. It surveys attitudes towards the fable as a pedagogical tool prior to 1880 and reviews Pope’s choice of 50 from the 300 available fables in the Aesopic canon.

The study finds that Pope was well informed and well intentioned, but nonetheless appeared to be unaware of potentially unsettling interpretations of his selected fables.

While it may be relatively easy for twenty-first-century readers to perceive the cultural tensions of Pope’s work, exploring the historical context helps us to understand both why Pope compiled the text he did, and why he and his books were well regarded by both Pākehā and Māori, despite almost certainly not conveying the values the settlers wished to inculcate in Māori.

Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, ungenerously described by its author as a “rhapsody void of order and method”, actually developed several ideas about the functioning of markets that anticipate some of the concerns of contemporary subjectivist economics such as are expressed in the writings of the modern Austrian School. While it may be too much of an exaggeration to follow F.B. Kaye by declaring Mandeville a “founder” of laissez‐faire economics, it is also quite incorrect to reach the negative verdict of one recent author who concluded that Mandeville “did not advance free‐market economics on any issue”. Mandeville did advance economics in general (and free market economics, incidentally) when he emphasised how patterns of conduct that emerge from the clash of individual egos guided by the flattery of politicians often function to promote some degree of commodious social life that is especially enjoyed by those quick to condemn the conduct as “immoral”. This theme still has its adherents today. I shall group Mandeville's contributions among four overlapping subject headings as follows:

Today, foreign language teaching can find important resources in technology, the Internet, etc.; but how the teaching of foreign literature, or literature in general, might benefit from technology remains a more open question. The project “Writing La Fontaine” seeks to complement the traditional practice of literary imitation with technology that facilitates writing and peer‐editing. The project allows for detailed study of the literary text and may provide a possible model for the use of technology in the teaching of literature.

Family businesses do not perpetuate themselves. Entrepreneurs must nurture and propagate the values that led to the creation of the very thing most precious to them‐their business.This of course depends on stability. Nor do these cherished values propagate themselves. To be made meaningful for others, and for future generations, family experiences, values, and achievements must be communicated to others via language, narrative and storytelling, or other forms embedded in the narrative such as symbols. Often a variety of different socially constructed stories may be necessary contingent upon situation, purpose, or need.

A short fable for aspiring teachers and students of organization change. A new slant on “oversimplification”?

This article examines what women consumers mean when they define themselves as either “young” or “middle‐aged.” A survey of women 30 to 69 shows that they consider it acceptable to be young at any chronological age. This article provides evidence debunking five common fables about women and negative age stereotypes. The reality, supported by this survey, is that women deny their chronological age, consider themselves young well beyond forty, and typically identify with a state of ageless youth. The marketing implications involve product development embodying youthful images and advertising campaigns using mature models, rather than teenagers, to appeal to mature women who define themselves as young at heart.

A motif, as defined by Jean-Charles Seigneuret (1988, p. 17), is an ‘essential part of a contemporary academic discipline known as thematology or thematics’ and that ‘two factors may explain the rise of the thematological method: its interpretive potentialities and its intrinsic congruency with the history of ideas’.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm first introduced the story of Snow White and her evil stepmother the Queen in 1812. Decades later, the character of the Queen, who later becomes the Evil Queen, is depicted in copious narratives and several different mediums. A central parallel in most of the representations of this character is that she is presented as evil. As such, how the Evil Queen character is represented in media sees a congruence of specific aesthetical characteristics, which combines to symbolize a rhetorical motif for evil.

Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which explains how individual organisms can become exquisitely adapted to their environments, does not explain the evolution of adaptive societies with equal ease. To understand the nature of the problem, imagine a mutant individual who behaves in a way that increases the survival of everyone in her society, including herself, to an equal degree. Such a “no-cost public good” might not appear very feasible (and will soon be amended), but is useful for illustrative purposes. By increasing the fitness of everyone, the mutant trait will not increase in frequency within the society (other than by drift, which can equally cause a decrease in frequency). This example illustrates the elementary fact that natural selection is based on relative fitness. It’s not enough for a mutant trait to increase its own survival and reproduction; it must do so more than alternative traits in the population. The relative nature of fitness makes the evolutionary forces within a population insensitive to the welfare of the population as a whole.

This chapter will focus on the development of children's literature in the western world. The topic will be discussed with reference to the historical development of children's literature, previous sample works and the concepts of childhood, which have been changing day by day. As it is known, the first literary texts presented to children are verbal. With the spread of the printing press, written literature and changing social perceptions led to the emergence of a separate literary idea for children. Tales, myths, legends, nursery rhymes, and children's songs, as well as the alphabet books and the texts in holy books, which are among the first oral products, are considered the first texts that children encounter. However, the spread of the idea of humanism enables the questioning of the position of the child in society. In this way, works that are suitable for the world of imagination have started to be produced, considering the interests, needs and perceptual differences of children. The Aesopian fables in the 17th century, the Works by J.J. Rousseau in the 18th century for children and his liberal perspective, Robinson Crusoe by D. Defoe and Gulliver's Travels by J. Swift are among the basic works of children's literature. The perception of children and childhood that changes in every century is reflected in literary works.