The Listening Grove · Aesop's Fables
Fable 20: The Plane Tree
A Charlotte Mason fable lesson. Press play, with the lesson.
What is Aesop's fable The Plane Tree about?Parent review
Aesop's Fable 20, The Plane Tree, is a short story about blessings we fail to notice. Two travelers rest from the noonday sun in the cool shade of a great plane tree, and as they lie there one of them complains that the tree is useless, since it bears no fruit and only drops its leaves. The tree itself answers, calling them ungrateful, for they enjoy its shade even as they call it good for nothing.
Say what you remember!
Tell what you remember from the last fable.
What happened in Aesop's fable The Gnat and the Bull?Have a look
In the last fable, The Gnat and the Bull, a tiny Gnat rested on the horn of a great Bull and then begged his pardon for leaving, sure the Bull would be glad to see him go. But the Bull replied that it was all the same to him, for he had never even known the Gnat was there.
Back to the previous lesson: The Gnat and the Bull →The Books come Alive!
Read or listen to The Plane Tree, the Kindred Thicket Revised Edition.
Read by Kindred Thicket, from the Kindred Thicket Revised Edition.
Read along with the fableRead along
Two Travellers, walking in the noonday sun, sought the shade of a widespreading tree to rest. As they lay looking up among the pleasant leaves, they saw that it was a Plane Tree.
"How useless is the Plane!" said one of them. "It bears no fruit whatever, and only serves to litter the ground with leaves."
"Ungrateful creatures!" said a voice from the Plane Tree. "You lie here in my cooling shade, and yet you say I am useless! Thus ungratefully, O Jupiter, do men receive their blessings!"
Memory becomes Action!
Use the character cards* to remember who is in the fable. Choose one way to narrate.
*Character cards are free with the email list; the Composition Prompt and Drawn Narration Sheet are in the Companion Guide.
What is the list of the names, people, characters, and places that are important in Aesop's fable The Plane Tree?The Two Travellers, The Plane TreeHave a look
- The Two Travellers: The tired travelers who rest in the tree's shade and yet call it useless.
- The Plane Tree: The great tree that shelters them from the sun and answers their ingratitude.
What is the moral of Aesop's fable The Plane Tree?Have a look
“Our best blessings are often the least appreciated.”
The travelers enjoyed the tree's cool shade at the very moment they called it useless. Our best blessings are often the ones we notice least, even while we are enjoying them.
The Plane Tree Q & A
Common questions about this fable: the other titles it goes by, where it comes from, its lesson, and how to help your child narrate it.
What is a plane tree?
A plane tree is a large, spreading shade tree common around the Mediterranean, with broad leaves and a wide canopy, much like the American sycamore. In the fable its great size is the whole point: it gives the travelers deep, cool shade even as they call it useless. Knowing it is a big shade tree is all a child needs; the story explains the rest.
Where does this story come from, and where else will my child meet it?
The Plane Tree is one of the shorter fables in the Aesop collections and has been retold in Greek, Latin, and many later languages. Plane trees shaded the walks and market places of ancient Greece, so its first listeners knew exactly the cool the travelers were enjoying. When your child meets it, she is meeting a very old reminder to be grateful.
What is the lesson of this fable? Do I need to explain the moral?
The travelers rest in the tree's cool shade at the very moment they complain that it is good for nothing. You do not need to spell this out. Charlotte Mason found that children "readily appropriate the moral" of a fable on their own (Towards a Philosophy of Education, Vol. 6), and a fable does its best work when a child reaches the point herself. Read it well and let it do its quiet work.
How do I help my young child narrate this fable?
Read it through once, without stopping to quiz, then invite your child to tell it back in her own words. Mason believed a single hearing was enough, noting that "few grown-ups could 'tell' one of Æsop's Fables with the terse directness which children reproduce" (Towards a Philosophy of Education, Vol. 6). If she stalls, one gentle prompt restarts her: "Why did the travelers stop under the tree? What did they say about it?" For a child who is not yet writing, drawn narration works beautifully here, letting her draw the travelers resting in the shade, or the great plane tree spreading overhead. And if she needs something to hold while she tells, the character cards in our free bonus materials give her the two travelers and the plane tree to point to as the story unfolds.
Should I go over the vocabulary before we read this fable?
Usually not, and this is where fables differ from history or science. In those subjects a single unfamiliar word can carry the whole meaning of a passage, so it is worth a quick look beforehand. A fable works the other way. Its gift is exposure, and the way a child quietly infers what a word means from the story around it. So read this one straight through and let the context do the teaching. If a word truly blocks understanding, say what it means in a breath and read on, keeping the whole of the story in one piece.