WHY HAVE STORYTELLING IN THE SCHOOLS?
copyright 2016 by Harlynne
Geisler 858-569-9399 storybag[a]juno.com
Storytelling in San Diego, Southern
California, and the World
Especially Storytelling School Assemblies in San Diego
County
Because I am a storyteller/consultant to the gifted program of
the San Diego City Schools, I was asked that question recently. Here is what I said:
Children today are losing the ability to imagine, to create their own images.
Television and picture books give them someone else's images and tell them precisely
what those images are doing. A storyteller speaks simply, though often stretching
the children's vocabulary through poetic use of language and through use of foreign
and archaic words. The child has to elaborate and embroider the simple terms used
in the stories--to truly see in the mind's eye a princess "as tall and slender
as the reeds the grow by Loch Erne" or a bed "as soft and white as the
heart's desire."
If children hear exciting stories from books beyond
their reading level, they will want to learn to read better so that they can read
such fascinating volumes. Storytellers as purveyors of literature are role models
of readers.
When I enter gifted classrooms, I often see posters that admonish
children to be polite, kind, or generous. As any preacher or rabbi can tell you,
moral messages are better conveyed by subtle stories than by strict lectures. Evil,
rude, greedy characters often have their way early in a folk or fairy tale--as in
life--but goodness always wins in the end. Storytelling also encourages better relations
between children of different cultures by showing through stories from all over the
world that all peoples laugh and love and grieve and desire in much the same way.
If you wish to more fully comprehend the emotional and psychological value of
storytelling for children, I suggest that you read The Uses of Enchantment; The Meaning
and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim, a child psychologist. He writes
that "without fantasy to give us hope, we cannot meet the adversities of life."
A storyteller once said that "Oral storytelling is the activity in which the
child listening is most certain of the speaker's total gift of attention to him/her,
and it therefore has a healing power in an unloving world." I have found in
my own experience that stories create trust and love within myself and the listeners.
This could be used effectively in schools. For example, if a third grade teacher
would tell stories in the spring to the second grade students, they wouldn't be as
worried about starting her/his class in the fall.
A well-trained storyteller
always uses good breath control, careful enunciation, appropriate gestures, effective
pauses, and other speech techniques that mark a perfect speaker. Any child or teacher
can learn from the teller's example. In fact, storytelling is used in the high school
speech contests that I have judged.
There are many other educational purposes
for using storytelling which can be found in books and articles about storytelling
at your local library. None of them obscure the fact that storytelling is just plain
fun!
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