About This Lesson
Isaac Asimov once described "The Ugly Little Boy," his 19-page story written in 1958, as one of his three favorite works among everything he had ever written! Be sure to locate the story version and not the version which he later developed into a book. It is a part of Isaac Asimov:The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (usually in libraries but also sold on Amazon). There is an online version of the story available for free at a blog title Miss Fellowes (the name of a major character in the story) Blog: http://theuglylittleboy.blogspot.com/
This compelling story involves a not-quite-perfected time travel experiment , yet it teaches important lessons about compassion, greed, name calling, power trips, stereotypes, and false assumptions. The focus of this story is the psychological and sociological aspects, so if your students only like rock-'em, sock'em action with monsters then this may not be for your class. Still, it is worth a try since it can be related to current events and one's own society values. This story brought tears to my eyes and could be enjoyed by grades 7 through 12.
