Race, Class and Gender

Story is far older than the art of science and psychology, and will always be the elder in the equation no matter how much time passes. -Clarissa Pinkola Estes

As I was reading this article, I was intrigued by the shift these young men had to make with storytelling. In their home community, storytelling was an oral form. As they shifted to the camp and on to America, they were "forced" to become literate. I say forced because they knew being literate meant power. And power for these young men was incredibly important. It meant freedom. Also, the example of the message board board indicates why becoming literate was essential.

It seems as though they thought they had no choice but to become literate. One said that it was important for the oral stories to be written down so that others could find them and read them if they were from the same community. Tradition and history are important to them as it identified who they were and what they came from.

After reading an article, I always think of ways I can use it in my classroom. This article confirmed what I already believe to be true. Students lives must be a part of their literacy. Without connections learning is meaningless. Oral story telling is also incredibly important. So often we get wrapped up in the whole writing process that we forget the beauty of telling stories orally. Today I listened to one of my students use a voice for a stuffed polar bear I have in my room. Her imaginative play was a way of storytelling. It was nice to hear her talk about why he wasn't cold (because of his fur and thick skin) and why he was brave. She may have just been "playing" but that was her way of connecting her knowledge.

In another course, we talked about creating "camp fires" for classes to sit around and tell stories. I think this social interaction is essential. Students need to learn how to speak to one another, in addition to learning how to write an amazing piece of work in 45 minutes.

Sarah Feinman