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Elsie's Life Lessons
This study guide is a companion to Elsie's Endless Wait and Elsie's Impossible Choice (Books 1 and 2 of the Elsie A Life of Faith series). The theme is the nine 'fruit of the Spirit' from Galatians 5:22. Using excerpts from the fiction books about the Christian character and life experiences of Elsie Dinsmore, this study guide provides daily lessons that teach the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Scripture memory flash cards are included.
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2001
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May 28, 2016
At best, this book communicates a poor idea of what faith is like, and at best, it teaches that submitting to child abuse is a-okay. And for that reason, this study is not okay at all.
This study is mostly based off of the first few Elsie books, and draw excerpts from the texts to illustrate how we ought to live based off of Elsie's behavior. Though I really liked these books as a younger child, now that I read it with a higher level of maturity I cannot imagine finding these lessons encouraging at all. I mean, I was not encouraged as I went through and read (and responded to) every lesson in this thing. A few of the problems, from the top of my head?
*suggesting that reading the Bible is the BEST reading experience you'll ever have! I am someone who loves to read, mostly YA specfic, and has also read the Bible through twice. And to act like reading the Bible, especially when you're only eight or nine or ten years old, is the epitome of good reading for your age group. Is reading the Bible important? Yes, fine. But it is a religious text, it is not a comic book or a chapter book or a book about princesses or superheroes or dogs designed for someone at a third grade reading level. WHICH IS FINE. Faith matures as you do. But a) acting like the Bible is the equivalent to a NYT bestseller is misleading and b) the 0-60 route just did not work for me.
*the "fruit of the spirit" comes to you naturally Elsie is a Mary Sue character. Everything good in the world comes to her naturally! She "struggles" being patient and kind and generous and gentle but she is good at it about 96% of the time especially where everyone else in the book fails. This kid is like, eight, and she is a paragon of virtue even though, half the time, she demonstrates that she doesn't truly understand the full context of the Biblical passages she's reading. For real girls, learning to walk in one's faith doesn't come that easy. And I'm guessing Elsie would be a depressing person to look up to because, unlike Jesus, she is perfect and has no redeeming effect on you personally.
*human experiences are sinful There were other parts that just struck me as off. The chapter on self-control, for example, seems to demonize emotional expression, like being anything but happy in front of others is bad. I think Inside Out can explain better than I why this is a terrible message. And that isn't even to say that controlling one's emotions is a fully bad thing—but it doesn't explain why, for example, it is inappropriate to throw a temper tantrum but sometimes anger is healthy and we need to find constructive ways to demonstrate that fact. Perhaps that part would be better suited to a discussion, but considering the text alone, it sort of just seemed like a bunch of messages that were written with good intentions but then ended up kind of vague when it comes to the practical application of virtue.
But those are just minor annoyances, often personal things that bothered me about the text itself, and could probably be ignored.
The thing that really bothered me what Chapter 8, "Walking in Gentleness." In some ways I think a better title would be "Walking in Getting Abused by a Cruel Family in the Antebellum South."
The chapter deals with things like being persecuted for one's beliefs and giving up one's personal desires for the sake of others. And sure, those are okay things to talk about—the problem is that in the examples used to teach those things, Elsie was being straight-up abused, not being an A+ Christian. Elsie was yelled at, treated unfairly by her peers, ignored by everyone except the Magical Negroes who made up the household staff, excessively punished for her "crimes," slandered by her step-grandmother, and hurt in a variety of different ways.
In response to this, the book seems to say that "This is normal behavior to expect when you're being persecuted or just being treated badly, but if you gladly submit to that treatment, God will love you even more." I believe at one point there is even a question that asks the student to consider how standing up for herself when she doesn't get her way is a negative behavior.
There is a difference between wishing for a toy or a vacation or a baby brother and not getting it and accepting that with grace and WISHING THAT YOUR FAMILY WOULD NOT ABUSE YOU. THE LATTER IS A SITUATION WHERE IT IS OKAY TO STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, ESPECIALLY IF THAT MEANS GOING AND GETTING HELP FROM AN OUTSIDE PARTY.
But nahhhhh, being gentle is about taking abuse for the team. Like Jesus. Obviously.
I am not okay with that part at all.
In the end I have to believe that actual children who read this wouldn't mind because they wouldn't recognize all of the unhealthy ideas present in the texts and discussion questions. If it were my kid, though, this is not the kind of foundation I'd like to build to prepare her for healthy and meaningful teenage years. I would have to hope I'd find her more realistic resources to give her a better start.
This study is mostly based off of the first few Elsie books, and draw excerpts from the texts to illustrate how we ought to live based off of Elsie's behavior. Though I really liked these books as a younger child, now that I read it with a higher level of maturity I cannot imagine finding these lessons encouraging at all. I mean, I was not encouraged as I went through and read (and responded to) every lesson in this thing. A few of the problems, from the top of my head?
*suggesting that reading the Bible is the BEST reading experience you'll ever have! I am someone who loves to read, mostly YA specfic, and has also read the Bible through twice. And to act like reading the Bible, especially when you're only eight or nine or ten years old, is the epitome of good reading for your age group. Is reading the Bible important? Yes, fine. But it is a religious text, it is not a comic book or a chapter book or a book about princesses or superheroes or dogs designed for someone at a third grade reading level. WHICH IS FINE. Faith matures as you do. But a) acting like the Bible is the equivalent to a NYT bestseller is misleading and b) the 0-60 route just did not work for me.
*the "fruit of the spirit" comes to you naturally Elsie is a Mary Sue character. Everything good in the world comes to her naturally! She "struggles" being patient and kind and generous and gentle but she is good at it about 96% of the time especially where everyone else in the book fails. This kid is like, eight, and she is a paragon of virtue even though, half the time, she demonstrates that she doesn't truly understand the full context of the Biblical passages she's reading. For real girls, learning to walk in one's faith doesn't come that easy. And I'm guessing Elsie would be a depressing person to look up to because, unlike Jesus, she is perfect and has no redeeming effect on you personally.
*human experiences are sinful There were other parts that just struck me as off. The chapter on self-control, for example, seems to demonize emotional expression, like being anything but happy in front of others is bad. I think Inside Out can explain better than I why this is a terrible message. And that isn't even to say that controlling one's emotions is a fully bad thing—but it doesn't explain why, for example, it is inappropriate to throw a temper tantrum but sometimes anger is healthy and we need to find constructive ways to demonstrate that fact. Perhaps that part would be better suited to a discussion, but considering the text alone, it sort of just seemed like a bunch of messages that were written with good intentions but then ended up kind of vague when it comes to the practical application of virtue.
But those are just minor annoyances, often personal things that bothered me about the text itself, and could probably be ignored.
The thing that really bothered me what Chapter 8, "Walking in Gentleness." In some ways I think a better title would be "Walking in Getting Abused by a Cruel Family in the Antebellum South."
The chapter deals with things like being persecuted for one's beliefs and giving up one's personal desires for the sake of others. And sure, those are okay things to talk about—the problem is that in the examples used to teach those things, Elsie was being straight-up abused, not being an A+ Christian. Elsie was yelled at, treated unfairly by her peers, ignored by everyone except the Magical Negroes who made up the household staff, excessively punished for her "crimes," slandered by her step-grandmother, and hurt in a variety of different ways.
In response to this, the book seems to say that "This is normal behavior to expect when you're being persecuted or just being treated badly, but if you gladly submit to that treatment, God will love you even more." I believe at one point there is even a question that asks the student to consider how standing up for herself when she doesn't get her way is a negative behavior.
There is a difference between wishing for a toy or a vacation or a baby brother and not getting it and accepting that with grace and WISHING THAT YOUR FAMILY WOULD NOT ABUSE YOU. THE LATTER IS A SITUATION WHERE IT IS OKAY TO STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, ESPECIALLY IF THAT MEANS GOING AND GETTING HELP FROM AN OUTSIDE PARTY.
But nahhhhh, being gentle is about taking abuse for the team. Like Jesus. Obviously.
I am not okay with that part at all.
In the end I have to believe that actual children who read this wouldn't mind because they wouldn't recognize all of the unhealthy ideas present in the texts and discussion questions. If it were my kid, though, this is not the kind of foundation I'd like to build to prepare her for healthy and meaningful teenage years. I would have to hope I'd find her more realistic resources to give her a better start.
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