Ellen Handler Spitz, Visual Arts, in The New Republic

While poring over pages of “Struwwelpeter,” one of the most controversial children’s books of all time, Honors College Professor of Visual Arts Ellen Handler Spitz began questioning the idea of the classics. Why was ‘Struwwelpeter’ so popular? “Children are bewitched by this book because it challenges them in ways that adults can no longer fathom or recall. It stands or falls on the credo that children can bear to be scared by art and thereby grow.” Handler Spitz adds that it addresses youthful audiences as such and puts all the moral power into the child’s own hands.

The column, “Harsh Lesson,” ran in The New Republic’s, “The Book,” on Thursday, April 15.