Pictures of school life in former times brought thoughts of Stories in such times. There were stories that every child seemed to have heard fables, fairy tales, classic children’s writers. Often the stories were unhappy, sometimes they were even horrid. It never seemed to occur to anyone that the option of changing the story was always there. Whether the story was to edify or to educate or to entertain, a happy story would suffice as well as a sad one.

When my son was small, I remember that the changing …