Schooling the Kid - EPISODES 41 TO 45

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

                   

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-41

The art of Story Telling

Stories influence the children. Teachers enable effective influence on the children.

Says Sri Aurobindo “Influence is more important than example. Influence is not the outward authority of the teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses. This is the supreme sign of the Master. For the greatest Master is much less a teacher than a Presence pouring the divine consciousness and its constituting light and power and purity and bliss into all who are receptive around him.”

Story telling is an essential learning style in the formative years of schooling. As such, even in the pre-school stage the concept of story telling is used by the parents or the grand parents at home. The stories have a significant impact on the knowledge domain of the learner and have a long lasting effect on the psyche and the mental framework of the learner.

The stories have the following advantage:

• It invokes curiosity
• It provides motivation
• It fires the imagination
• It helps in building mental models
• It increases vocabulary
• It familiarizes with communication skills
• It helps in establishing linkages with communities
• It facilitates in building concepts and values
• It helps in passing on a heritage
• It enlarges vision
• It gives a meaning and reference to several social actions an systems

Features of story telling:

1. Story telling is basically an interactive process. There is a direct interaction between the teacher and the child when the event takes place. The learner responds both to the verbal as well as non-verbal communication of the teacher. The responses of the child on this occasion is generally:

·         Emotional

·         Immediate

·         Spontaneous

The following aspects of the story teller have an impact on the listener:

• Words
• Tone
• Speed
• Position
• Eye movements
• Body movements

2. Story telling is not a passive process. On almost all occasion, the listener receives the story in an active manner and formulates mental images, visions and stages the play in his mind’s screen. In this process the following things happen:

o   The learner creates his own images

o   The learner formulates his own actions

o   The learner directs the story in the way that is unique to him or her.

o   The learner makes his own environment for the events

o   The learner develops his own costumes.

All these happen according to the belief systems of the learner, psychological profile and environment of the learner and in a manner that is most desirable and appealing to him or her. Thus the learner becomes a co-creator of the entire story.

3. Story telling is most often personal and subjective. The story teller articulates the story in a manner that is more appropriate to him. In this process he adds value that is unique to him. It almost becomes his or her personalized communication rather than that of the author of the story. He or she tends to internalize the story, add personal experiences and depict it in a more human form than is envisaged.
4. Story telling is often a spontaneous process. The story teller, when motivated to tell a story becomes emotionally committed to the content and process of the story and intends to communicate the essence of the story in its emotive form. He tends to add value, structure the process and design a delivery mode that would be very special. In this process, he seeks to relate to the listener and seek his full attention.

There is more on the art of story telling in primary classes. Our primary school teachers need to employ this skill much more meaningfully in the classroom to get the desired results.-        

G. Balasubramanian

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-42

The impact of stories on children

The stories impact the mind and the psyche of the children in many ways. The type of impact depends on the type of the stories told. There are many types of stories and many styles of story telling. :

At the pre- school stage, parents and grandparents normally tell stories which are related to:

• Birds, animals and pets
• Kings and kingdoms
• Fairy tales
• Epical stories
• Comics and humors
• Adventure stories

In most cases the objective of such stories focus on:

Ø  Showcasing belief systems

Ø  Passing on a tradition or a heritage

Ø  Communicating a moral, ethics or values

Ø  Explaining conflicts and their management

Ø  Developing a sense of compassion

Ø  Staying away from an wrong path and choosing righteous path

Ø  Success of Truth over Falsehood

Children listen to stories very attentively as it endears their curiosity and provides food for thought. Children tend to develop mental imageries and models of the experiences provided in the story an often personalize these imageries. The knowledge provided through story inputs gets easily transferred to the affective domain and is converted into experiences. Such experiences could have a highly positive or a negative impact on the psyche of the learners. Hence it is important that the process of story telling is articulated in such a manner so that the objectives of the story are correctly communicated to the learner.

The stories can provide the following inputs in the minds of the children:

·         Fear

·         Anxiety

·         Hatred

·         Sympathy

·         Animosity

·         Violence

·         Adventurism

There could be many other emotions too. It is important for us to analyze some of these emotions – their cause and effect.

Fear

There are many case studies which indicate that children develop a sense of fear on hearing a story narrated by the parents, grandparents, peers or teachers. In certain cases, the context and content of the stories may not be for the appropriate age group. Especially

if some senior children are narrating stories of adventurism and when they are heard by the younger children, they tend to develop a sense of fear. This may be born out of unknown, fear of unfamiliar things or threat.

In certain cases this fear leads to:

• Loss of sleep
• Bad dreams
• Screaming in the night
• Bed wetting
• Psychological trauma
• Sense of withdrawal
• Unintended violence

Some of the inputs of stories which may lead to fear could be:

• Description of giants or negative characters
• Description of dastardly weapons
• Description of imaginary animals/beasts
• Description of violence
• Description of separation, hunger or poverty
• Description of death
• Narration of mystical lands
• Narration of places or scenes unfamiliar to the listener

There could be several other inputs which may lead to emotional disturbances. We will examine them in the forthcoming issues. Keep reading!

G.Balasubramanian

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-43

The feelings of fear, anxiety and story telling

We have seen in the last issue that several different types of feelings can be invoked on the young minds through story telling. It is claimed that fear is the most primordial feeling of the human brain. The developmental psychologists of human brain say that the brain is not designed for learning but for survival. Hence any idea or thought or feeling that would provoke fear in the minds of the learners at the formative stage is something which needs to be closely examined. There are several case studies of students who have been either marginally or extensively affected due to hearing or seeing a story on the television screen.

The following points needs to be kept in mind in story telling:

• Stories should be appropriate to the age group.
• Their design should be simple and effective
• There should be no over-emphasis on characters or events to enhance their emotional content
• The delivery should be emotionally moderated if not neutral.
• The emotional participation of the learner has to be gauged periodically whenever possible.
• The objective has to be clarified to show its positive intent.
• Story should not be focused at one individual or select few in a group.
• They should not personalize the events or the content on any single child which could disturb the holistic emotional balance of the class.
• Negative connotations of the story should not be overplayed.

Sometimes students tend to project threat or an unpleasant situation on their self and suffer. Hence teachers should adopt such facial expressions and body language which would not kindle fear in the minds of the students

In addition to the fear the students may also develop a sense of anxiety on hearing, reading or seeing a story. We will now see the different types of anxieties the children develop in this process.

 Anxiety

Many children become victims of one or the other kind of anxiety syndromes. Stories invoke the curiosity of the listeners and sometimes induce anxiety in the process of development of the story and its progress. This is quite a natural feeling. This cannot be considered as a negative feeling.

However certain events, occurrences or narrations lead to a sense of anxiety. This could be due to some of the following reasons:

• There are threats to a popular character in the story to which the child is fascinated.
• The popular character is in deep trouble and facing a crisis. The child empathizes with the character.
• There are narrations of natural calamity or accidents. The child personalizes such events
• One or the other character is in penury and facing death. The child either empathies or personalizes with the character.
• There is an acute chaos in the place of narration and the child becomes tense.
• There are description of violence and attack on men and materials. The child is disturbed by the negative environment.
• The child character in a story is orphaned or is in misery. Again the child may empathize or personalize the character

There could be several other modes by which a sense of anxiety may be imported into the minds of the children

What should the teachers do in order to ensure that the children do not suffer anxiety resultant to the mental models they have developed on hearing a story?

G. Balasubramanian

  

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-44

Managing anxiety in story telling

Teachers need to keep the following in mind while articulating a story:

• While it is important that a variety of emotions need to be displayed in the pedagogy involved in story telling, such of those inputs that would infuse a sense of anxiety could be moderated and modulated.
• Over-stressing negative sentiments like those of calamities, disasters, pestilence and penury should be avoided. While a realistic picture has to be projected, there could be a shift towards a database rather than emotions to nullify the build up of negative emotions.
• The feeling of anxiety in the minds of most children gets easily expressed through the following:

• Restlessness
• Inability to hold to a seat
• Visual expressions
• Facial expressions
• Sweating
• Need for physical relief
• Lack of concentration
• Lack of balance in emotions
• Aggressiveness

Teachers should be able to identify in a group one or a select group of children who yield to symptoms of anxiety and handle them appropriately.

Says Dr. N.S. Srinivasan and Dr.G.Balasubramanian in their well researched book “Brain Re-engineering”:

“Stress is often considered to be an outcome of the malfunctioning of the signaling circuit. Compelling an individual or oneself to respond in a stereotyped manner to certain external stimuli has always been the bane of human understanding. Without inquiry into the nature of the input necessary to trigger a specific response for a particular individual, generalizations are often propounded and blindly accepted. For example, before dyslexia was discovered, many students were termed dumb, if they did not have language comprehension skills. The fact is that a dyslexic could be as intelligent, if not more, as in the case of Einstein, than a student with excellent language comprehension skills.”

Some of the following methods could help in building relief systems in the minds of children:

Ø  Questioning children on the characters that fascinate them and the reasons therefore.

Ø  Questioning children on the events/characters/parts of the story that has been disliked by them and finding the reasons.

Ø  Initiating a peer discussion about the story in the classroom

Ø  Allowing children to play different roles to correct distorted mental models if any

Ø  Enacting such parts of story in the classroom by a group of children which would have promoted anxiety so that they are related to certain realities.

Some of the above might help in dislodging misconceptions about persons, characters or events and to understand them in their right perspective. They help in building empathy, establish rapport and relationships and sense the needs of others and develop the urge to help those who are in need.

Says Daniel Goleman  in his book Social intelligence, “In the design of the brain, winning features are shared among various species. Human brains have vast tracts of well- proven neural architecture in common with other mammals, especially primates. The similarity across species in sympathetic distress, coupled with the impulse to help strongly suggests a like set of underlying circuitry in the brain. In contrast to mammals, reptiles show not the least sign of empathy, even eating their own young.

Although people can also ignore someone in need, that cold-heartedness seems to suppress a more primal, automatic impulse to aid another in distress. Scientific observations point to a response system that is hardwired in the human brain – no doubt involving mirror neurons- that acts when we see someone else suffering making us instantly feel with them. The more we feel with them, the more we want to help them.”

After all, the objective of education is, to empower the future citizens with those human qualities which will help them to co-exist with their fellow-beings with comfort and Peace, to empower them with the abilities to reach out the needy..

Story telling has a lot of meaning in the classroom. Do you agree?

G. Balasubramanian

Learning Steps     - A Learning community                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Volume 2

Schooling the Kid                                                         Step-45

Hatred, Animosity and violence in story telling

Hatred

Hatred could usually be borne out of fear, non-compatibility, annoyance, differential value systems or due to extreme violent provocations. Evidences do exist when children develop a sense of hatred against certain things.

Some normal situations are:

• Hatred against certain characters
• Hatred against certain events/practices
• Hatred against classmates
• Hatred against teachers
• Hatred against subjects
• Hatred against places
• Hatred against neighbours / relatives

Statements of the following kind are not uncommon among children:

“I hate this character because he always fights”

“I hate his killing animals”

“I hate Shyam because he always tells ghost stories”

“I hate this teacher because her stories are not interesting”

“I hate this book for it contains only stories which describe killing”

Some of these statements of the students are quite genuine and are borne out of certain emotional experiences. Quite possibly, the way a story is narrated or presented might create a positive or a negative relationship with the story teller.

Teachers should take care that during presentation of the story:

• They do not give excessive focus on issues that could promote hatred against individuals/ communities /places
• They offer necessary explanation to justify the role or action of the characters in the context of the story
• They should present the story value rather than extending it to real time situations or personalizing them.
• They should present a balanced picture rather than being judgmental, avoiding value judgments.
• Stories with themes that promote communal hatred, parochial interests should be avoided.

Animosity

Many children pick up qualities of envy, jealousy and other negative feelings either from the content or the theme of the story, or may be due other allied reasons. Teachers need to ensure that rivalry of one kind or the other should not develop among children.

Quite often such feelings are developed in the minds of children affected by some complexes. Children suffering from some challenges or inadequacies also become victims to such feelings. Children having disturbed family backgrounds or exposed to certain psychological trauma also develop such feelings.

A few reasons for these could be:

·         Children identify themselves with some affected characters and tend to take revenge as detailed in the story

·         Children associate certain events in the story with their personal life events and follow similar actions as in the story

·         Children project certain conflicts in the story with their own conflicts

·         Children do not bear injustice done in the story and develop animosity against any of the peers who justify it.

Animosity is exhibited by the students through several ways:

• Use of abusive language
• Use of aggressive postures
• Isolating oneself from the company of select people
• Bullying and nagging
• Physical assault

Teachers should adopt strategies in story telling that would not promote animosity. The following strategies can be thought of:

Ø  Discouraging children from personalizing characters/events

Ø  Adopting role-play technique to provide correct projection of characters/events

Ø  Highlighting the negative effects of feelings like anger, jealousy etc, leading to fights among people

Ø  The reward for patience

Ø  The impact of negative feelings on mind and health

Violence

There is increasing evidence to show that stories based on violence do leave an impact on the minds of the children. Films, T.V serials etc., depicting violence have an immediate impact on the psychic status of the child and they tend to follow some wrong examples of characters depicted in the films. In so far as stories are concerned, there is lesser evidence. Nevertheless, it is important that teacher should avoid narrating such stories which would kindle a sense of violence in the young minds. It is often stated that “Wars start in human minds”. Hence it is important that the mental health of the students have to be taken care of.

In most cases violent tendencies are seen due to the following reasons:

• Inability to tolerate
• Absence of patience
• Unhealthy comparisons
• Greed and excessive possessiveness
• Jealousy
• Manifestation of ego
• Inadequate and improper communication 

Thus one may find that story telling is a unique art and calls for employing a lot of thoughtfulness, understanding and appreciation of the psyche of the learners. Teachers need to plan adequately and use the pedagogy effectively to get the desired results.

G. Balasubramanian