Winnie the Pooh in the classroom

Abstract

In this master’s thesis, I have chosen to write about Winnie the Pooh, and the main characters of four children’s books written by Alan Alexander Milne and illustrated by E.H. Sheppard. The statement of hypothesis is: Can the characters in Winnie the Pooh be argued to be personifications of the various traits of Christopher Robin? And what can these traits tell us, when shown, in a pupil? To answer this hypothesis I have made use of Glynis Hannell's book Identifying Children with Special Needs in reference to the characters and students. The discussion sets out to show that the traits of the characters in Winnie the Pooh can be found in every classroom and that some of the traits may, or may not, be a symptom of a disorder. In the cases where the trait may have a connection to a disorder, the disorder in question is also addressed. Further, the thesis contains chapters about the author, A. A. Milne, his son, the real Christopher Robin, and various critic’s views and interpretations of the Winnie the Pooh stories.