Even as early as preschool and kindergarten, good literature in the form of picture books and classic children's stories can be used to teach positive character traits and life lessons. One popular tale, re-told in a number of different picture-book versions, is Aesop's "The Mouse and the Lion" in which youngsters learn that bigger is not necessarily better and even small people can be useful. This story also teaches about kindness and making unlikely friends, something young students may want to keep in mind as they are exposed to an ever-broadening circle of different peers.
Learning to read opens a wide world to young children. They can experience activities and emotions they may not normally encounter in their everyday lives. Literature can teach students the basics of friendship, cooperation and overcoming obstacles. One teacher uses the now-classic storybook "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon to teach her students about how they can become friends with others who may be different. In the story, the title character is a bat separated from her mother who learns to survive by befriending a family of birds. The story emphasizes the traits of trust and respect and teaches that it is possible to learn valuable lessons from those who may look or act different.
Middle school students struggle with increasing responsibility, fitting in with their peers and making choices that may be right but may also make them unpopular. Often studied in grades 6 through 8, S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" offers numerous opportunities to discuss the sometimes difficult lessons life teaches when we are faced with being responsible and making individual choices that may not win approval from friends. The main character, Ponyboy, is a teenager from the poor side of town who befriends a rich girl. This leads to a series of events that culminate with Ponyboy risking his life to save children from a fire and realizing that the poor and rich are more similar than he first believed. This novel helps middle school students think about the price they pay for popularity and the ultimate responsibility they have to do the right thing, no matter how difficult it may be.
Students in high school are exposed to a wide variety of literature through which they see some of the difficulties they may face in life as emerging adults. Thornton High School near Denver uses Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" to shape students' ideas about bullying and the proper response to it. In the play, Prospero, a man with magical powers, has suffered the loss of his dukedom and nearly his life at the hands of his brother and the King of Milan. He intends to destroy the two wrong-doers by creating a storm and shipwrecking them, but he stops when his servant Ariel tells him he should forgive rather than destroy. After viewing an abridged version of the play, the students take part in workshops led by the actors to explore how the lessons in the play can be applied to modern-day high school life.