Page 30 - Whoos A. Fraid

WORKSHEET
In this first page of the worksheets, Cosmos helps you understand that it is not unusual to be afraid of new and difficult situations or people. Fraid’s excuses for not wanting to be around owls that looked different or staying out at night were pretty weak. He was letting his irrational (Stinky thinking generate anxiety and fear. He would then try and justify his emotions and behavior with excuses that are somewhat believable ... just as we do in our real lives. We come up with “plausible” justification that we hope others will accept.
In the commentary, Cosmos points out that in the human world, parents and sometimes teachers let us avoid what we fear, “with a weak excuse.” He is making the point that they (parents and teachers are not doing you any favors by letting you avoid your fears. In fact, Question 2 points out that despite Fraid’s request to not stay out at night, Smartest the teacher made him stay. The question of “Why” is important. Was Smartest being “strict”
or “mean” as some children might think or was he trying to show Fraid that staying out a night was a necessary skill and must be mastered?
For some children, writing in cursive is fairly easy, for others transitioning from printing to cursive is extremely difficult. In fact, the quality of
their cursive is poor, even with their best efforts. Should we then allow them to continue to print and thus avoid the frustration and possible ridicule of others?
In this simple example is the core of the lesson Smartest was teaching. There are some things we must learn to be able to succeed. We may find these tasks difficult and even unpleasant. We may never be able to “master” these skills and will always find them difficult. But we can not allow ourselves to justify our avoidance of these tasks. In Fraid’s story, this meant he had to stay out at night and learn to catch mice. Our human tasks are different but many of them are just as difficult, scary and distasteful.
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