Afterword - Why Live Storytelling in Education…

“Truly it is inspiring to hear of great things well told" ~ Thor
(from “Asgard” by Nigel Frith, 1982)

Close observation of an oral storytelling session, when it is flowing well, will often suggest a creative dialogue being quietly urged within and among the minds and imaginations of the listeners. It is as though you can see it on their faces, in their body language, their quality of animation or stillness. Or, you might sense something in the air, in the ambience; or in the warm lattice-work of the collective connection.

A wholesome learning experience is surely taking place in which lessons, insights and realisations, urgent and personal to each individual, are bubbling up to the surface and are being processed within the brain and being of each person present.

Change is afoot.

This inner activity is mirrored in all story by a single defining feature which is that the listener is continually being put in touch with insight into some aspect or other of human transformation and growth.

I believe that a vital element in the bringing to maturity of young people is to be found in their being allowed to observe, recognise and embrace processes taking place within their own lives through the stimulus of similar, perhaps more digestible, parallels in story. And, the perceptive storyteller will actualise this function of story within the dynamic of the telling process itself.

Good storytelling will relax the mind. It will unearth spiritual, emotional and intellectual resources hitherto perhaps deeply buried. It will encourage conjectural thinking, assert the value of intuition, promote social positivity and cultivate a sense of personal inner strength, self esteem and empathic regard for others. It will actively engage the hearer at the point of his or her current experience by seeking to bring about a resonance between listener and tale, listener and teller, listener and fellow listener.