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Reading vs Story
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From: Stacy Whitman <stacer11>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 09:58:47 -0400
Thanks for that eloquent message, Monica. I agree that it's story that takes me--whether it's someone telling me their eventful week, or a good movie, or a good book. I've been thinking also about cultures who don't/didn't have written language and for whom an oral tradition was paramount. Recently at work (I work for an educational publisher), I was writing a short biography of Deganawida, who helped
(along with Hiawatha) convince the leaders of the Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) nations to form the confederation that brought internal peace for several hundred years. The storytellers tell the story of the founding of the Haudenosaunee League at festivals and gatherings every year. Sometime in the last 500 years, I think
(sorry, don't have the resources with me), the storytellers got together to compare versions to ensure accuracy, and most versions were mostly correct--and this is after 5 or 6 hundred years of telling the same story. His story is available to us because of that strong oral tradition, and I admire how well people with oral traditions can remember so much without the written word.
Also, between this list and a few conversations on child_lit, I've become increasingly agitated recently at the feeling that reading is the most important activity anyone could ever do. Yet at the same time, we (as a society) complain of how kids today don't get out and play as much anymore. So when someone recently
(sorry, forget who) said that they were excited to get some non-reading kids to read, who normally would rather play baseball or soccer, in the back of my mind I wondered--but do we want to take away what active time kids have and *replace* it with a sedentary activity, no matter how important? Couldn't they coexist?
Now, I recognize that those *particular* boys in question sounded like they were of the sort who are *always* outdoors, always running about and playing, so they don't have the sedentary problem that most kids do. It's just that the poster's comment sparked a related thought. How do we encourage that kind of activity that used to be natural to so many kids, while at the same time encouraging a love of story and the ability to read well?
Stacy Whitman
----- Original Message -----
From: Monica R. Edinger
To: Subscribers of ccbc-net
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 8:38 AM
Subject: [ccbc-net] Reading vs Story
I'll go out on a limb and say that while I don't consider reading that
important to life, I do think story is. I love to read myself, but often
wonder how I'd cope in a dire and longterm situation (say imprisonment)
without anything to read. I figure I'd tell myself stories in my head:
old ones and new ones. I'd make do without books. I'd survive through
stories.
I suspect that this stance is the result of my two years in Sierra Leone
as a Peace Corps Volunteer. If I had not spent so much time in a place
where people have emotionally and spiritually rich lives without reading I
would probably feel differently. Functional literacy was what those of us
who taught aimed for. We weren't teaching so that people in Sierra Leone
would read books the way I do. Just so they could read basic forms and
signs. Sure, it would be great if they could read books too, but I'm
bothered (no doubt this is the result of my Peace Corp training and
subsequent degree in International Education) at the way we privilige
reading and the book and tend to overlook (and, too often, look down
upon) the other ways people worldwide receive and send out information.
Popular culture is a piece of this. (My students and I raised money for
handcranked radios for Sierra Leoneans a few years ago. Books? One radio
for a whole village seemed much more important to us.)
Today I see a wealth of ways to receive and present stories: in addition
to traditional book experiences (private reading, reading aloud, etc.)
there are films (good bad and horrible), blogs, graphic novels, web pages,
video games, radio, television, and more.
So while reading may be at risk, it seems to me story is not.
Monica
Monica Edinger
The Dalton School
New York NY
edinger at dalton.org
monicaedinger at yahoo.com
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Received on Sat 17 Jul 2004 08:58:47 AM CDT
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 09:58:47 -0400
Thanks for that eloquent message, Monica. I agree that it's story that takes me--whether it's someone telling me their eventful week, or a good movie, or a good book. I've been thinking also about cultures who don't/didn't have written language and for whom an oral tradition was paramount. Recently at work (I work for an educational publisher), I was writing a short biography of Deganawida, who helped
(along with Hiawatha) convince the leaders of the Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) nations to form the confederation that brought internal peace for several hundred years. The storytellers tell the story of the founding of the Haudenosaunee League at festivals and gatherings every year. Sometime in the last 500 years, I think
(sorry, don't have the resources with me), the storytellers got together to compare versions to ensure accuracy, and most versions were mostly correct--and this is after 5 or 6 hundred years of telling the same story. His story is available to us because of that strong oral tradition, and I admire how well people with oral traditions can remember so much without the written word.
Also, between this list and a few conversations on child_lit, I've become increasingly agitated recently at the feeling that reading is the most important activity anyone could ever do. Yet at the same time, we (as a society) complain of how kids today don't get out and play as much anymore. So when someone recently
(sorry, forget who) said that they were excited to get some non-reading kids to read, who normally would rather play baseball or soccer, in the back of my mind I wondered--but do we want to take away what active time kids have and *replace* it with a sedentary activity, no matter how important? Couldn't they coexist?
Now, I recognize that those *particular* boys in question sounded like they were of the sort who are *always* outdoors, always running about and playing, so they don't have the sedentary problem that most kids do. It's just that the poster's comment sparked a related thought. How do we encourage that kind of activity that used to be natural to so many kids, while at the same time encouraging a love of story and the ability to read well?
Stacy Whitman
----- Original Message -----
From: Monica R. Edinger
To: Subscribers of ccbc-net
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 8:38 AM
Subject: [ccbc-net] Reading vs Story
I'll go out on a limb and say that while I don't consider reading that
important to life, I do think story is. I love to read myself, but often
wonder how I'd cope in a dire and longterm situation (say imprisonment)
without anything to read. I figure I'd tell myself stories in my head:
old ones and new ones. I'd make do without books. I'd survive through
stories.
I suspect that this stance is the result of my two years in Sierra Leone
as a Peace Corps Volunteer. If I had not spent so much time in a place
where people have emotionally and spiritually rich lives without reading I
would probably feel differently. Functional literacy was what those of us
who taught aimed for. We weren't teaching so that people in Sierra Leone
would read books the way I do. Just so they could read basic forms and
signs. Sure, it would be great if they could read books too, but I'm
bothered (no doubt this is the result of my Peace Corp training and
subsequent degree in International Education) at the way we privilige
reading and the book and tend to overlook (and, too often, look down
upon) the other ways people worldwide receive and send out information.
Popular culture is a piece of this. (My students and I raised money for
handcranked radios for Sierra Leoneans a few years ago. Books? One radio
for a whole village seemed much more important to us.)
Today I see a wealth of ways to receive and present stories: in addition
to traditional book experiences (private reading, reading aloud, etc.)
there are films (good bad and horrible), blogs, graphic novels, web pages,
video games, radio, television, and more.
So while reading may be at risk, it seems to me story is not.
Monica
Monica Edinger
The Dalton School
New York NY
edinger at dalton.org
monicaedinger at yahoo.com
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Received on Sat 17 Jul 2004 08:58:47 AM CDT
