We are all natural storytellers. Everything that happens to us in our lives is filed at the back of our minds in containers called stories.
Long ago, before there was TV, radio, newspapers, or even books, people got their news and entertainment from storytellers.
Story is an essential feature of any culture. Without it we have no notion of who we are or how we fit into the scheme of life.
Can you imagine a society where stories are not told?
Everyone knows stories. They may be ones we heard as children, they may be ones we tell about our lives, but we all have them.
The potential to tell a story is in everyone.
Each of us tells stories of our life-experiences convincingly every day.
When we are telling the stories of our lives, we muster the deepest feelings and interesting details we can to grip our listeners.
Storytelling is a dynamic form of communication. It is highly personal and its value is greater than just entertainment.
Storytelling reinforces the child’s own storytelling skills, that fundamental grammar of all thought and communication, which enables each human being to order his or her experiences so they can be transmitted to others.
Telling stories in the classroom is an excellent way to establish a positive relationship with students.
When children listen to a story, the mechanical difficulties of reading are put aside and the storyteller’s pacing; intonation, gestures and expression support their efforts to “think the pictures”.
