He’s A Teacher Talking About The Most Upsetting Lesson In The Rainbow Fish, A Popular Kid’s Book
“The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister is a popular kid’s book, and it’s one I read back when I was little.
I’ll give you a quick rundown of the book in case you’ve never opened it: basically, there’s this fish with eye-catching, unique scales, which sets him apart from other fish in the sea. It also makes him super vain, which in turn causes him to be lonely.
The book’s message is that being beautiful doesn’t gain you friends and that sharing things that mean the most to you is of utmost importance.
A fifth-grade teacher named Mr. Vuong, who goes by @teamvuong on TikTok, is opening up about the most upsetting lesson he sees in “The Rainbow Fish.”
Mr. Vuong starts off by saying that the illustrations in the book are amazing, and he truly believes that Marcus Pfister, the book’s author, created it with the best of intentions.
That being said, at one point in the book, another fish asks the Rainbow Fish to give away one of his scales, which Rainbow Fish refuses to do.
Mr. Vuong states that Rainbow Fish absolutely had the right to decline to share since “he doesn’t have to give up any part of himself for anybody.”
Mr. Vuong goes on to suggest a better message for the book: focusing in on the flaw of Rainbow Fish, which is his arrogance and his belief that he’s above all the other fish.
Back to the book: when Rainbow Fish decides to keep his scales to himself, the rest of the fish stop playing with and including him.
WavebreakMediaMicro – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual children
The refusal to share his scales Mr. Vuong views as Rainbow Fish creating a boundary for himself.
Only after an octopus suggests to Rainbow Fish to share his scales does Rainbow Fish do so, and then the other fish go back to accepting him.
“So, he got acceptance when he gave up parts of who he was,” Mr. Vuong noted. “He had to change to get others to like him.”
And that is the upsetting message Mr. Vuong takes issue with. He uses the book in his classroom to teach his kids how to think critically.
He reads them the book without sharing his views with his kids, then allows them to talk about what messages they see in the book.
“We had a really good discussion about how our relationships should not be transactional and conditional, and you should never have to feel like you have to change yourself in order to feel like you belong,” Mr. Vuong continued.
From there, he had his kids talk about the author’s intention before asking them to come up with alternate endings that don’t involve having “to pay for your friends.”
Mr. Vuong concluded by saying he thinks it’s extremely valuable to teach kids to think critically about the things that they read.
@teamvuong Poor Rainbow Fish. #teachersoftiktok #teachersfollowteachers #teachertok #literacy #therainbowfish #readaloud
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