It’s Story Time!

A Story to Begin

Many years ago, an anthropologist travelled to a very remote and isolated village in southern Africa, hoping to learn about the customs and traditions of the people living there. He met with an elder and asked if could stay for some time. The elder, curious about the man, and trusting of his intentions, invited the anthropologist to stay. As time passed, the anthropologist learned some of the language. He fished, hunted and ate with the people. He walked with them to collect water. He celebrated with them and he grieved with them. Several months later, it was time for the anthropologist to return to his own home and family.

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The day before he was due to leave, he called all the children from the village to gather with him in a clearing in the woods. He had a theory he wanted to test. When the children arrived to the meeting place they found the anthropologist waiting with a large basket filled with fruits and sweets. Wide-eyed, they listened as the anthropologist spoke. He asked the children to stand side-by-side and explained, “Do you see that tree way over there? I am going to put this by the tree. Once I set the basket down, I will count down from three. When I say go, each of you will run as quickly as you can towards the basket. The child who touches the basket first, will get everything inside. Does everyone understand?” The children look at each other and nodded. The anthropologist walked to tree and set down the basket. Then he looked up at the children, and said, “3, 2, 1…GO!” What happened next may surprise you. The children grabbed each other’s hands and they ran towards the tree, together.The anthropologist looked from one child to the next and held back a smile. He then asked, “Why did you do that when one of you could have had the whole basket all to yourself?” A little girl in the group stood up and said, “How can one of us be happy, if the rest of us are sad?” This is Ubuntu. “I am because we are.”

We Are All Storytellers

It was not until my sixteenth year of teaching that I realised just how powerful a tool storytelling can be. I was teaching pre-kindergarten at the International School of Luxembourg. As part of the school day, there was a 45-minute rest time, where the children would enter the classroom, find their comfy cot, and in theory lay down to rest (perchance to dream!). It turned out, I had a fidgety group who were not prone to napping. I tried everything legally allowed to get them to rest, including the Youtube classic, “This will put you to sleep, guaranteed!” (There’s no recourse for this defective video.)

After more than a month of attempts, it was clear these kids were not the resting type and I refused to spend such a long period of time every day giving ineffective sleep therapy to four and five year olds. So, I had to come with something new. Eliminating rest time was not an option. The cots had to come out, the lights and blinds had to go down and the children needed to stay put, so to speak. So, I started to tell stories. With no pictures to see, I eliminated the whole, “I can’t see!” comment that so often interrupts the flow of a picture book reading. Everyone could stay exactly where they were because all they needed were their ears. What happened next still amazes me, especially considering that these were digital natives. They were practically born with iPhones in their hands. They were accustomed to Dolby sound and Technicolor-rapid moving images. How in the world did the stories I told, with only the sounds I could produce with my mouth, capture their undivided attention?

At first, I thought it was the absence of anything else to do, and to some extent that was true. They were ‘confined’ to their cots in a darkened room. I was the most exciting thing available. But when the oral storytelling moved from rest time to circle time or playtime or math time, I noticed the same level of undivided attention and interest, regardless of the content of the story. Why was this happening? I believe all of us in that room knew that these shared moments, moments that could never be exactly replicated, belonged to us. It was like a secret society and it brought us closer to one another. Children crave real human connection and when I was telling them stories, I was one hundred percent present and connected. The other beautiful outcome was that the children could see that everything I needed to captivate and entertain was already inside me and that I got better every time. For these young learners, I was doing something they could see themselves doing. They might not yet be able to read, but this concept of telling stories with words and voices and actions was something they, too, could do. And soon, that was exactly what they did, What happened in that classroom over the course of the school year was magical. We created a culture of listening closely, creating and savouring the moment.

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Laura Manni


Laura Manni is Director of Development at Bridges of Peace and Hope and the
Manager of Community Engagement and Communication at CMMB. She also works as an early childhood consultant,
running training and interactive workshops around the world. Laura has
worked in the field of Early Childhood for over 16 years. Her most treasured personal experience is her involvement
in setting-up Mukwashi Trust School in Zambia, where she serves as volunteer director since 2006.