Story telling defines a people. When a person from whichever field of specialization is given a chance to speak, perhaps to motivate or inspire people, the “big” person will always prefer to start with a story. Before the main story, there is always a very short story that they will prefer to talk about. For instance, when you ask a C.E.O of a company to talk about his company, the C.E.O will choose to start with a story of an experience. This is exactly why we tell stories; to share experiences.
Arguably, one will say that we tell stories to let people know our problems and help us to solve them. well, that is a good way of beginning this conversation. Although, we should perhaps ask another question. Do stories really help in problem solving and are they that important to our lives? What of the lives of the children?
Stories have the power to create, to reproduce and to portray a world in a particular perspective. The stories we tell and the stories we listen to become our primary sense of our self-awareness. That is why when we have lived a good life as a people, our lives become good stories that are worth inspiring others and when we lead a chaotic life, we become examples in bad stories. So, what story do you carry?
However, it is not all lost to a good story teller or a good listener of tales. One thing is that a keen listener of tales will always find lessons to take home even from the villains in a story. From the heroes of the stories, there are values and virtues to learn and emulate the traits. From a flat story that has neither heroes nor villains, there is always an experience shared, a world view given and sometimes even even instructions to perform a new task. A well intentioned listener will always have an advantage in a number of situations. The first lessons a child is given at home by parents or caregivers is always through stories and the last words someone leaves to his or her beloved ones probably on a deathbed is through stories.
Is it wrong to argue that stories are life and lifestyle? As parents and guardians, it is becoming a question directly addressed to them, “what sort of stories do their kids get exposed to?”
Stories are powerful. In the modern world, stories have got so many sources and almost everything can become a source of a story. If not very careful, children may be interacting with wrong types of stories from good sources. Take the example of a Tv as a source of stories. The Tv is a good source of stories and information but if not under the parental guidance, the child might be exposed to a story that may not be good to them at their age or generally, just bad stories.
Even in books, there must be guidance if the issue of bad stories from good sources to innocent children is yo be tackled. There is need for mandatory obligation of every parent or guardian to take care of the kind of stories that their children consume.
In as much as stories are primary sources of Knowledge that children are first exposed to from the family interactions, it is cautious to make sure that children especially at a tender age can only get access to stories that will be helpful in their lives. This is the only sure way of parents raising children that will be aware of the situations at home- their values, their faith, their beliefs and all the things around their lives. So, storytelling is the best Avenue to expose children to lifelong lessons.
While growing up, children can be exposed to stories that talk about leadership, responsibility, honesty or any other moral issues that are suitable depending on the suitability of their upbringing and their age. Good parenting facilitates an all-round upbringing where through the narration of these stories and sometimes with practical examples, the children are developed at the levels of their body, soul and the mind. In short, storytelling especially to kids should be more of instructional learning than just moments of killing time.
As these very kids start to attend school, they should be exposed to stories to do with hardwork, diligence, respect and generally about how to socially fit into a particular group of people or how to interact with people from different backgrounds. Infact, schools should adopt the method of having class readers on different topics. Unfortunately, here in Kenya, reading and storytelling is not given a priority.
Story telling should deliberately be made to occur in such a manner that it cuts across majority of topics that can be thought of as constituting the day to day life events of these children. By this, children will be being adequately prepared to face what lies ahead of them and the realities of their lives.
Encouraging story telling at homes and at school has been linked to a number of benefits, including but not limited to the creation of family bond, tolerance and accommodation, acceptance and acknowledgement of the existence of other people’s way of life and their cultures as well as their perspectives on issues. Therefore, storytelling as can evidently be seen, it’s a measure of capacitating national integration-one of the goals of education in Kenya.
The successful adoption of storytelling in our day to day activities is a trajectory that will enable critical and creative thinking because amidst children because as they read, write, listen to and narrate stories, they exercise their brain muscles thereby making them stronger with an open mindset.
On the same lane, when children listen to stories from the older people in a community, they realize that there are different things they might be missing or there are few things that the older generation missed out. As such, they can be able to identify the gaps that arise due to the generational gap that exists between them and the older members of the community. As such, they may develop an interest of trying to follow up on the possible areas they might be missing and take their lessons home with them. With this in mind, they will be serving humanity as well as expanding their scope of knowledge and as such, they propel the epistemological wheels to a greater level.
As it has always been since time immemorial, In life, people learn through the art of storytelling. A story models a person into forming their identity and gives the person the true reflection of the issues of his or her time. As such, people can have as many stories as their day to day activities. These identities and chances for self-reflection and personal growth will be of benefit to children and even adults since through stories; there will be need to check on themselves what they have not gotten right in their definitions of who they truly are.
Other benefits that have been linked to storytelling include entertainment, creation of awareness and warning. Some stories come to warn of particular character traits such as greed, dishonesty among other undesirable vices while some stories may just be comical and humorous, making children laugh or entertain them.
One thing that is not attributed to stories is that they have the power to change the thinking of a particular people and even completely alter their perspectives. Often, the lines of drift or change may range markedly from the economical, the cultural, the political or even the psychological spheres.In her own words while talking about the dangers of a single story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says that a multiple stories exposed to a people expands their thinking while a single story about a people tends to make stereotypes of the people.
to the situation of the politics, they all become stories. When we meet new friends and interact with them, we are creating experiences that we wouldn’t want to forget
All these experiences become the stories that we tell people. Fortunately, there is one thing that is so much conspicuous about stories. It doesn’t matter the format but every story has the power to educate.
Stories cannot be overlooked. In the end, we all become stories. The greatest question remains, what kind of stories do we become? It is therefore a preconditioned measure for people to check on their activities so that when they finally are no longer able to defend or justify their way of life, their legacy will do it for them. This can only be achieved when people accept that in stories, there is light, there is education, entertainment and other issues that they can be proud of if they get them right.
To get these lessons right, a deliberate journey of sacrifice is made right from the childhood to adulthood. Storytelling telling sessions have therefore become impactful to such a degree that we cannot avoid their benefits. To the children, may they remember that there can still get to learn the stories they never heard about and may they keep the lessons from those stories to their children and their children’s children
To the entire nation, may we all remember that a story a day keeps depression away.
Namaste !
By Enos Odero
A literary analyst and critic.
M.A literature student, Rongo University.
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