The power of storytelling

Every community has a story to tell. As a matter of fact, every community has hundreds, even thousands of stories to tell. You learn that as a reporter that wherever you are stationed, be it a small town or a large city, there is an endless supply of tales to tell. And even the people who've lived there their whole lives - the ones who, as they say, know where the bodies are buried - don't know them all.

As we've learned from John Lee's "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods," engaging stories can spark an interest in history among students. Being a former newspaper man, who used to do a lot of "Looking Back" type pieces for published editions, I loved reading about characters that have inhabited different communities over time or the events that changed the course of history for a place. Floods, tornadoes, snowstorms, droughts have wreaked havoc on communities in this state. Changes in technology have affected how residents have become more connected with the world. Wars in foreign lands have resulted in the deaths of people who called various communities home. I think newspapers and other chronicles of a community's history present many wonderful opportunities to not only learn about the history of that village, town or city, but also about what was happening in the country or the world as a whole that affected life as they knew it.



Lee writes on pg. 13 of "Visualizing Elementary Social Studies Methods" that, "Children must understand that history is not based on a single narrative or a sole perspective." That is absolutely true. The fabric of history is woven with many different threads. What we learn the more we read about historical events is that people and places were impacted differently by various events. The Civil War is a great example. The battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg affected the soldiers of both armies differently. Reading journal entries or letters from them that have survived over the years offer varying perspectives on what actually happened. That to me is the joy of studying history.

Lee's example of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune and their friendship offers students a different look at race relations and politics in the 1930s and '40s. The educational treatment of that subject helps students feel as if they are part of the story. That same feeling of being connected to that story can happen through reading newspaper accounts of a community's history, or even better, oral histories of certain events that took place can certainly give students a greater sense of what it was like to live in the past and offer them an interesting perspective on what is happening today in their hometowns.

Whatever the case, storytelling is a powerful tool for teachers, and when used right, it can lead to a lifelong pursuit of historical truth, which can certainly evolve over time.