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As we discussed in our previous article 7 Storytelling Hacks – Introducing Kids To Cultural Stories, Indian culture is rich with stories sharing life lessons, morals, traditions and values. Story telling is really an art and a story teller is an artist.
When I was teaching as a professor, I would introduce a new book to my students during my lecture. This will make them curious in reading the book. I would list the name of the book, author, publisher and cost of the book. Mostly I would list only those books I have read. Most of my students really appreciated this.
Still my students thank me for teaching them the toughest subjects like Data Structures, Programming and Operating System in an easier way. This was made possible only by experimenting various pedagogic tools. Among all, story telling, puzzles, and role play are my favorites.
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We are dedicate an hour in a week as Reading Hour in our family during Sundays. We three will engage ourselves in reading for that one hour. It’s a family bonding hour and relaxation hour too. And we have a policy of gifting friends and kids with interesting books only.
We are die hard fans of books and stationary items. And we are collecting books for setting up own library in our house. We are proud to share that we have collected nearly 300 books so far. My son is having his own collection of nearly 150 books.
Though Indian culture is rich with stories, story telling is found to be lacking in this modern era. The reasons for this are wide spread. With my personal experience as a mother and as a professor in an engineering college, here i have listed some important reasons for the lack of story telling.
Reasons for Lack of Story Telling
Teachers and parents are not able to tell stories in this modern world due to some difficulties as:
- Limited time to complete the syllabus: In schools and colleges, they have only limited time to complete the prescribed portions. Hence they could not experiment with many pedagogic tools like story telling, role play and all.
- High stress in working environment: Parents are facing work pressure and high stress beyond their limits. They are being driven by annual targets, performance hikes, societal pressure, and work challenges. So they love to relax in front of TV when they are back home.
- Lack of time: Moreover, parents also not finding time to read stories and other topics. They have to manage the physical, financial, emotional and critical needs of their family. All these demands time for its execution.
- Less priority: Parents are not aware of the benefits of story telling and spending quality time with their kids. They are happily satisfied by providing them with expensive gifts and hi tech life. They have hope on quantities than the quality. Work is their higher priority.
- Lack of interest: Social media and digital gadgets are becoming the most important in our life. They are slowly making us to be lazy. Both parents and kids are not interested in traditional stories, games and discussions.
- High homework stress to kids: Kids are being forced only to get academic excellence rather than getting real world knowledge. The performance of a kid is measured only by exam marks and not by his interests and talents.
- Effect of Micro Families: In earlier days, my father and grandfather and all lived in the same house as joint family. And today micro / nuclear family is the trend. The parents are running for their life and the kids are dumped with the maids, or gadgets or play schools. So nobody is there to tell them the fascinating stories.
Advantages to Cultural Storytelling
While it is totally understandable that life gets in the way of creating a magical land fueld by imagination, the impact is tremendous. Science says that story telling has numerous benefits.
Moral values Get Rooted Deeply
Through stories and plays, it’s very easy to inculcate the moral values and positive things in the minds of kids. They get those values deep rooted in their hearts and will learn life lessons too.
Makes Younger Minds Malleable
Younger minds can grasp easily and can learn the morals and values from the stories. It’s easier to built a positive attitude in the minds of younger kids than the grown up adults.
Encourages Kids To Be Curious
Kids may be introduced with adventures, science fiction, riddles, and traditions through stories. They also develop their knowledge by exploring their culture, tradition and inventing new things.
Vocabulary Is Improved
By reading and listening, kids can improve their word power. They build their confidence in communicating their heart. They will be introduced with new words and thus their vocabulary gets improved.
Screen Gets Reduced
Story telling aids in lesser screen time. It keeps the kids creative and active. Their self confidence and the art of communication gets improved. This will lead to happier and stress free life.
Kid’s Memory and Focus Enhances
By repeating and replaying the stories, kid’s memory and concentration power gets enhanced. It really helps in decision making and boosting their potential to face the life with much confidence.
Kids Develop Empathy
They develop a deeper understanding of the world around them, in terms of people, history and subtext. It is important to explore different varieties of stories like the ones we have in our cultural section.
Do you tell stories to your kids? What are your favorite stories? What is your favorite time in a day? List your suggestions for spending quality time with your kids. Looking forward to read your stories.
