By Fiona Henderson
When teaching the myth of Pandora’s box to a year 2 (aged six and seven) class, I gave an empty box to a pupil and told him “I need you to look after this, but don’t open it”. He looked a bit confused but agreed. When I started to tell the story I walked around the room, picked up the box and gave it to another pupil, “Here you go, just don’t open it”, again and again, round the whole class. By the time our story reached the crucial moment when Pandora lifts the lid, all the children were craning their necks to see, the final pupil was gripping it tightly as though the contents might fly out. When asked what was inside the box they guessed monsters and curses, and one pupil suggested it was “one of those boxes you wind up and a clown pops out”; Pandora’s Jack-in-the-box.
“Suddenly out of the box everything horrible that didn’t exist yet, flew. Sickness, worry, fear, jealousy. Humans had lived without these things so far, but now they were all flying uncontrollably out of the box.” I read out the story from the version I’d written for their age group, including vocabulary and grammar which we’d been practising in their English lessons (adverbs like “uncontrollably” and “suddenly”, the use of lists, etc).
We talked about all the horrible things that might have come from the box, Monday mornings, the flu, feeling worried, sweetcorn. Their own ideas were much more interesting though:
“Plasters, because they hurt to peel off”
“Homework, because it's boring”
“Dad’s socks”
“Tomatoes"
And one pupil even put “My brother”.
Their ideas could be written on a scrap of paper and put anonymously into our class box, the one they’d been told not to open. We also worked on a colouring, for which I used Waterhouse’s “Psyche Opening the Golden Box”, as a way to introduce them to the visual style frequently seen in connection with Classics. I had initially tried with Waterhouse’s Pandora and Rossetti’s Pandora, but settled for Psyche as it was the clearest to photocopy and allowed the children to colour it in themselves. This way they could draw the bad things literally flying into the air.
Then came their more serious ideas. “Covid” and “pollution”. To children these things are invisible evils, and may as well have come from a mythical box. “Plastic”, we talked about the environment. “Rich people” and “homeless people” were both suggested, wealth disparity. There's a degree of depth and honesty to their answers; I was really impressed by the quality of their ideas and expression. For children to be able to communicate things which bother them, unable to explain beyond their own feelings, a mythic box of evil is as good a way to open a conversation.
The approach I would recommend to any teacher looking to introduce classical mythology to this age group is to make the storytelling interactive. By bringing a physical box, letting every pupil interact with it, and by asking the children questions throughout (why does Pandora want to know what's inside? Would you open the box? What does curiosity look/sound/feel like?) it engages them in the choice Pandora makes, relating her curiosity to their own in their everyday lives, and pushes them to express this. By stopping every now and then to ask the children questions it also allows us to clarify points, engage them with the process of storytelling, and makes it easier to track their understanding.
The issue I have with many interpretations of Pandora’s story is the lack of focus on her decision to close the box and keep hope safe inside. If we include Pandora closing the box, we remind the children that even when we’ve made the wrong choice, there is still time to make the right one.
I also made an effort to include activities suitable for all abilities. This benefitted lower ability pupils because it develops their confidence. By basing the activities around art or drama it doesn’t exclude these pupils, in fact, in my experience, it can help them find their place when they might otherwise feel that school isn’t for them.
It helps the middle and higher ability pupils by transferring skills learned in the classroom to wider concepts, broadening their interests, and encouraging them to learn outside of lessons (some even taking out books on the ancient world from the library in their own time).
Some of the resources I would recommend for approaching Pandora’s box in lessons are Jean Menzies’ Greek Myths, and Iseult Gillespie’s TedEd episode and questions online, both of which focus on curiosity as the key focus but include Pandora’s creation by the gods, as a great way to introduce the Olympians as well.
Fiona Henderson is a Year 2 Teaching Assistant, formerly of St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School in Hartlepool.
