While reading the Aesop (Winter) unit, one of the stories that stuck out to me was
The Ass and His Driver . While the actual story itself was amusing, I was more interested in the message at the end that read, "They who will not listen to reason, but stubbornly go their own way against the friendly advice of those who are wiser than they, are on the road to misfortune." While I think that message pertains well to the story itself, with the Ass thinking the fastest way down the mountain was to be over the edge of the cliff and the master letting him go despite the master knowing better, I don't think that message applies to a whole lot of things in every day situations. I think its important for people to be able to go their own way and choose what some people think is wrong if they want to. If nothing else, it is a learning process and if you only ever listened to what someone older or wiser said, you'd never find anything out for yourself.
Overall, I liked this unit the best out of all of the ones I have read. I wish I would have skimmed through this one before choosing some of the other ones I did because I like the messages attached to all the stories and feel that they relate to real life situations even today. Another story I really liked was
The Rat and the Elephant. I thought that the message was true and was something to keep in mind. It read, "A resemblance to the great in some things does not make us great." Basically just because you look like or do something that someone great and amazing does, doesn't also make you great and amazing.
I read this unit and I also really liked this story. It was a really funny way to illustrate how being too stubborn about something can lead to disastrous results. I liked that you pointed out in our lives that it is important that we are able to go our own way without always listening to someone older or wiser because it's absolutely true. Many times we need to learn and figure out things for ourselves.
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