Site Contents:
Freedom-in-Education Newsletter
August 2006
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The August Newsletter is about stories and story-telling, and the Jamboree website is tied in with this theme, so there are plenty of stories newly put on-line this month, for you to read.
My craft corner has also been up-dated, and on it you will find instructions of how to make a shadow puppet theatre, so you can bring your stories to life!
Stories really do hold a wonderful fascination for children, in fact they do for most adults as well. Children, I think, would be quite happy being told stories all day long, and parents often find themselves in danger of running out! Fortunately there is no shortage of stories in the world and children don't mind being told the same story again and again, - they also don't mind being read the story if their parent can't think one up.
I believe it does pay off to tell children traditional stories which have, after all, been told for hundreds, or thousands, of years. Although a child is always delighted with something of the story-teller's own creation, and made-up fairy-tale books can amuse and entertain them, these stories will rarely give the child any long-term wisdom which can help them in the future, in the same way as traditional stories can.
I remember when I was little my two favourite books were the story of the life of Buddha, and a My Little Pony storybook, which was based on a film which came out about that time. Needless to say, as I grew older it was not the My Little Pony storybook which ever helped me in any way, or ever had any relevance to my life, or answered any of my wonderings about the universe, or even continued to hold any interest for me beyond the age of about eight! But the book about Buddha's childhood certainly did, and still continues to fascinate me.
Similarly, the traditional fairy stories, like Jack and the Beanstalk, Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Puss in Boots, Aladdin, and so many other stories are just as good now as they ever were. They captured my imagination, and their plots were easy to remember; whereas stories about made-up princes and princesses, animals, pixies and goblins, although I enjoyed them at the time, and therefore still have a fondness for them, didn't make any lasting impression and never gave me any wisdom in return for my liking. In comparison they were extremely shallow, and really had no substance, whereas a traditional story from anywhere in the world, has a depth to it which one can endlessly explore, and understand in different ways the older one gets.
Anyway, all this is discussed in Dad's article below, which I am sure you will enjoy reading. You can always take a look at the Contact List, as there have been plenty of new entries over the past month.
Also, you will see the advert below for a Home Education day which we are having at our house here in Brittany, France, on the 20th August. It is the first of its kind, I think, for this area, but with all the people from the UK who have moved here, there are now quite a few people learning at home around where we live. So, if you are coming to Brittany in August you can come and see us too on our Home Education Day, and meet any other families who have come as well!
Wishing you all the best for a happy and not-too-hot August.
Best wishes
Wendy
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Quotes of the Month: "Everyone
is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration... -Article Two- "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." -Article Twenty-Six- |
Stories and Storytelling
The value of storytelling has largely been forgotten in the modern education system, but it is, in fact, through listening to stories that people develop their understanding of life and the world around them:
A few years ago, I received a message from a mother who was sending her child to a Steiner school, and was worried by the number of fairy stories that they were being told. She was concerned that fairy stories might be being used to indoctrinate her child into some sort of pagan religion, and she could also not understand why precious time was being taken up by listening to stories that were so old fashioned and out of date.
Her questions set me thinking, and since then, I have often wondered what sort of stories really ought to be told to children, and what role stories play in a child’s overall education. The more that I have thought about it, the more it has seemed to me that education and storytelling are more or less one and the same thing, and that there is hardly any way in which one can get an idea across to children except through telling them stories.
Before proceeding further, I must point out that I am not suggesting that the mother who wrote to me was wrong to be worried – in fact I believe that it is rare for a mother to be wrong on any point relating to the well being of her own child – and even though storytelling is in general a good thing, simply because it is such a powerful means of communication, it is important that it should be done well.
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Traditionally, adults have always known that it is through the medium of stories that one can capture a child’s interest and tell them things that they need to know. It is only in recent years – and the introduction of schools (the usual source of problems in the world of education) – that teachers have been insensitive enough to believe that you can get information across to children in the form of explanations or lectures.
Just thinking back to one’s own childhood should be sufficient to illustrate the difference between the effect of a story on the one hand, and an explanation on the other. When children are being told a story, they usually sit in rapt attention, leaning forward to make sure that they catch every word, asking questions if there is something that they do not understand, squealing with delight if something exciting happens, laughing when it is humorous, and breaking into tears if it is too sad.
The same children will fidget, look out of the window, talk to each other, argue amongst themselves and show every symptom of boredom if the same teacher stands up and starts to explain something. This is one of the main reasons why the modern school curriculum makes such a small impression upon children; it consists of explanations about science, history, geography, etc., with hardly one good story being told from one day to the next.
One of the few modern educators who has taken this subject seriously is Rudolf Steiner, and in his talks and lectures on education, he gave a few indications as to what stories he thought might be appropriate for children of different age groups, and, in a sense, constructed a system of education based around the telling of stories.
He recommended that the stories that children were told should relate to the culture within which they were growing up, so that in Europe, for example, children could first be told simple fairy stories, then stories from the Old Testament, then perhaps Norse Myths and Celtic Myths, then Stories from the New Testament, then stories from Ancient Greece, then the story of Rome, and then perhaps to return to some of the old European Folk stories, and then they could read famous novels and plays written by more recent authors, and, finally, they could study the history and the development of modern civilisation as though this too was an unfolding story.
People who have followed this sort of approach agree that it does indeed succeed in conveying ideas and information to children much more effectively than text books, work sheets, exercises, and the other paraphernalia of the modern school system. However, as hinted earlier in this article, simply because it is an effective means of communication, it has to be used more consciously than the less effective techniques now employed in schools.
Thus, it is not appropriate to write a definitive list which says that when children are three years old, they should be read one particular book, or told one particular story, and that when they are four years old, they should be told another story, etc. etc.
Most traditional stories are very profound, and address very important issues in life. Children tend to think deeply about life, and face up to these issues in their own time and in their own way: if they have not yet started to think about a particular issue, or if they have not encountered it in their own life – then it can be very troubling for them to be told a story that relates to it. On the other hand, if they are feeling troubled about something, and you tell them a story that relates to the very thing that they are worrying about, it can have a wonderful effect. The story helps a child to talk about the issue, and to understand that it is part of the human experience.
Here are a few guidelines which may be useful for parents setting out on the adventure of becoming a storyteller:
• Do not follow a rigid list or curriculum of which stories you are going to tell and when.
• If your child asks for a particular story tell it to them, even if you have told it hundreds of times before.
• Start with the oldest stories that you can find: fairy stories, myths and legends, stories from the scriptures, etc.
• Move on to other stories when it seems appropriate to you and your children: allow the finding of new stories itself to be an adventure.
• Don’t be afraid to change parts of a story as you tell it to your child.
• Be aware of the way that your children are reacting to the story; if it upsets them, miss a bit out, or even stop telling the story and tell them another one.
• Set aside a certain time in the day when you get together with your children to tell them a story.
• Reading aloud to your children is more or less the same as telling them a story from memory, as it still allows interaction between the storyteller and the listener.
Modern Stories / Old Stories
Storytelling is such a basic human activity, that it always manages to exist in people’s lives in one form or another, no matter what their circumstances. The fact that stories have, to a large extent disappeared from the school curriculum does not mean that they have disappeared from children’s lives. Television is probably the principal medium through which children are now introduced to stories, and once they get past a certain age, television ‘soaps’ are probably the stories which have the most potent effect upon them. Alongside television, there are other visual media to which children are exposed - films can make a very strong impression upon a child, and video games, although perhaps not immediately recognizable as a storytelling medium, probably do have a strong influence upon the way that children view the world. Story books and novels written for the children’s market represent another way in which modern business is seeking to capitalise upon children’s love of stories. One cannot help but be wary of all these storytelling media: the motivation behind them is essentially to make money, and the desire to tell a good story always has to take second place to commercial concerns.
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In fact there seems to be two basic ways in which most of the new, hi-tech storytelling ‘business’ is at fault. The first is, simply, that it is hi-tech. The essence of a good storytelling experience is the communication that takes place between the listener and the person telling the story. This is lost when the story is being told on a television screen. This is a particularly important point for parents who want to make sure that their children have a positive experience from listening to stories. When telling a story yourself, you can change it if you feel that it is starting to distress your child, or if your child cannot understand it; this doesn’t happen when the story is pre-recorded and impersonal.
The second problem relates to the fact that most of the material is so modern. There is a mistaken belief that modern stories are better because they deal with modern issues, but anyone who has really studied the subject of storytelling knows that there are no such things as modern issues.
Traditional stories deal with the fundamental issues of life - life and death, sickness and health, good and bad, war and peace, God and Mammon, wealth and poverty, justice and injustice, etc., etc. Stories that have managed to deal with these issues successfully have survived the test of time, and have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years.
No doubt there have been many other stories told in the past which have not survived - because they were not as good. In the same way, the vast majority of the output of the modern media will be forgotten in a few years time.
The stories that have been preserved by different cultures around the world represent our true inheritance as human beings. It is through listening to them and thinking about them that we inherit the wisdom built up by people over countless generations. This is why storytelling is, and always has been, the foundation upon which true education is built.
Gareth Lewis
| This article along with all the crafts, recipes and story up-dates from the Jamboree website can be bought in the form of a magazine at www.nezertbooks.net . Included in the magazine are many other stories, articles, puzzles, and cartoons. 40 pages. Colour. Glossy. A5 format. £3.50 p+p incl. |  |
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Letters
Feedback on last Month's Television
article.
Thank you for this excellent article.
I hope that in time (give it ten or twenty years!) we will, as a society be
as aware of mental health issues in child health as we are now aware of the physical issues. We will, I hope be treating television and children in the same way as we treat junk food and passive smoking. Television probably does as much (perhaps more) harm to a developing mind, as passive smoking does to the body. Television is a passive and pervasive influence on the developing mind and almost certainly has a much more profound effect on a young developing mind that it does on a mature and discriminating mind.Society as a whole needs to be made aware of this! Thank you for your
article.Arthur Paynter
Carlisle
, Cumbria
Gareth
I am very impressed with your article about television. I am sure children nowadays watch too much television and I think the quality of programmes has fallen over the past 15 or so years, especially on the terrestrial channels. Do you think educational programmes shown in schools have declined in quality as well? I find it cause for concern that there are people who think soaps have an educational value to children and are a good way of learning about relationships. Officially soaps are designed for adults rather than children, and I don't think it is possible for anyone under 10 to understand the complex adult social issues contained in soaps. I have encountered stories of Eastenders being used during citizenship lessons in primary schools. Apart from being a generally unpleasant programme with many scenes unsuitable for children of primary school age, the programme is almost entirely dominated by adults rather than featuring families with children. I am wondering whether this is government brainwashing by trying to convince children that soaps are representative of real life.
Another interesting point. A friend told me that back in the 1980s he moved area and shortly after starting at his new school he had to take an ability test set by the school. His parents weren't worried as they considered him to be of a high intellectual standard and was ahead of the class in many subjects at his previous school. They expected the tests to be English and maths, but instead they were physical ability and general knowledge. My friend passed the physical ability test but performed badly on the general knowledge test because most of the questions were about television programmes he didn't watch. As a result he was placed into the bottom ability set in most subjects. His parents were shocked at the results and discussed the matter with the school. After seeing the questions they told the head teacher that my friend hardly ever watches television and prefers other activities such as reading books or model making. The head then stated that the questions were general knowledge and my friend was weak in that area. For over a term he had to read books he had already read two years previously at his old school. It took a lot of effort from his parents to convince the school to move him into a higher ability group with more advanced books. This story might sound strange but it's true.
Best Regards
Riaz
Smita Rao,
India
Your letters and comments are welcome. You can send them to Gareth
Lewis at the following address, or to me at the address beneath:
gareth.lewis@freedom-in-education.co.uk
wendy@freedom-in-education.co.uk