What a day! Three groups of classes, three great sessions.
I drove over to Lewisburg in the evening, enjoying the greening mountains and soft air along the way. Lewisburg is a beautiful community with historic buildings and a bulging economy. There is a lot of growth in the area, but so far the feeling of a place old and well-cared-for remains.
The motel was quiet, and I was entranced by the motel-keeper's little son who had his own samovar of tea he carried around. His glasses gave him a very studious look, but his smile was pure boy.
The school was celebrating a week of Appalachian culture, and I presented the oral tradition in our state through storytelling and ballads. There can be nothing in this world as amazing as 100 or so kids sitting on the floor and listening, their faces wrapped in the story and living it with me. We sang together, talked about getting in trouble, learned about Jack (now there's someone who knows trouble!) and shared the pure joy that is always there when people listen to a story together.
The most magical thing to me is that each one of them was creating their own uniqie story in their imagination as they listened. No two children were seeing the characters, places and events in the same way. Each put faces to the people, saw palaces or huts or simple homes, each envisioned the details of the stories differently. How amazing is that! Video games and movies show children exactly how things are supposed to look, but with storytelling they get to create all the props and characters themselves.
That's important because when they read, they need to be able to do that with the printed word. Storytelling helps them develop the mental imaging skill that puts pictures and meaning to words. Listening well teaches a child that words can create pictures, and that is what makes reading fun.
So it was a great day, and I left as high on adrenaline and kid energy as it's possible to be and not get pulled over by the police. I hope the kids remember the stories we shared and try to tell them themselves, and I hope the teachers follow up by telling stories in the classroom from time to time.
As for me, I will look forward to the next storytelling event--Migration Celebration at Little Beaver State Park on May 12th.
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