Storytelling Starters ~ What’s to be done?
Saturday, January 9th, 2016Anger comes in many modes. Rage, crossness, outrage, fury. There’s also the kind that’s angry and sad all at once. And that’s the kind of anger I’m feeling right now. The reason for it is a particular story that has been gathering momentum for a while and is currently going on all around us. Yesterday morning I heard another example of it. A University degree course in Early Years studies that has been running an excellent module in stories and storytelling for a long number of years is in the process of being reformulated. And guess what? As things look at the moment, the stories and storytelling module will no longer exist in its own right. Why not? What ever can be the justification for that?
The loss:
So much has been gained since the 1980s when oral storytelling began its revival in this country. So much is now being lost. For it’s far from being just me observing the diminution of storytelling in education that is currently occurring. Most of my storytelling colleagues in this country will say the very same thing. Bookings and projects have dropped almost to nothing. And I don’t think the reason is that teachers have suddenly, en masse, taken over the storytelling and all the creative work that comes from it. Funding cuts have of course made a big difference. More serious is current education’s focus on targets, the pressure to do well in tests at all levels and, specifically, a much more mechanistic approach to learning to read and to books and what they are for. Phonics triumphs. Imagination withers.
‘Your stories are better than my teacher’s at school.’ I’ve reported that remark before. It’s what a young boy in my extended family said to me a while back. He has continued to benefit from our storytelling together. But why doesn’t he get that kind of pleasure at school? Granted, it does take some preparation and a real sense of involvement to engage children in stories. But it’s not rocket science. See the look on their faces. Know when they’re getting into the story. Work on the evidence in front of your eyes. Use sound and action and interesting props. Most of all, love your story. And tell the story out of your own commitment to language and imagination and, most of all, to the people to whom you’re telling it.