Storytelling genesis

In answer to a question from one of my fellow students in the Creative Coaching online class:

Storytelling is something that I learned at the feet of a master, my father, who used to gather his five children onto one bed on Sunday nights and tell "make up stories" to us. We loved his deep bass voice and feeling a part of the creative moment. Though he didn't call it storytelling, when I, the youngest, heard the art form later in life, I recognized it for what it was: an oral performance art.My father is gone now, but he has left a lasting legacy that I intend to pass on.

I'm not sure what spurred me on to create the storytelling curriculum for my students some 18 years ago. Perhaps it was sharing family stories around the dinner table when visiting with my family at a get-together. It seemed like a good fit for my 10-year-old gifted students, since in the general classroom, students don't get very much instruction in one of the pillars of communication: public speaking. I'd come across a book by Bob Greene called To Our Children's Children that is comprised only of questions, organized in chapters, that seek to elicit responses from elder family members, to be saved for posterity. I use a selection of these questions to give my students as interview questions for their parents, with the goal of eliciting a story of their parents' choosing that occurred to the parents when they were ten years old. This inter-generational exchange proves valuable for setting the stage in the academic year for parental participation in the language arts class that I teach. Students then spend about eight weeks with me, once per week, polishing the stories as dramatic art pieces. When they are ready, they perform their stories for Kindergarten students, who are a very appreciative audience.

My father having passed the "threescore and seven" benchmark, I thought it a good time to capture those memories before it was too late. I selected one question per month for a year from the book and sent it to my parents, giving them the entire month to think about their responses. Then I collected and collated their remembrances at the end of the year and distributed the collection to my siblings. Since within two years my father was stricken with inoperable and terminal cancer, I was eternally grateful that I'd engaged in this valuable exercise. Shortly after he was diagnosed, I asked if he and my mother would be willing to share their responses on film so we'd all have a visual, as well as a textual, record. This will always remain a treasured piece of family archives.

I recommend that you go to the National Storytelling Festival Web site at http://www.storytellingcenter.net/festival/ and click around to find some of the brief storytelling samples. Then, if you like it, you could go to some of the storytellers' sites and order a few stories to download. This should give you a sample of what this performance art is about.

If you're really interested in learning how to do storytelling, this is a good place to start.

Cindy (or Cynthia)

Ms. C. Scribner, Ed. M.
Teacher, Gifted and Talented Education (Retired)
E-mail: cescribner@gmail.com
Owner, 3 H Herbs, LLC

The first day of the rest of my life...

Today is the day that I begin writing for publication. I am free to design my days for the next 10 weeks to accomplish my summer goals:

• Work at least 20 hours per week, writing. This will include blogging; committing my storytelling to the written word; composing responses to the lesson for the week of Creativity Coaching
• Type as many of my poems from age 12 as possible during the summer
• Photograph at least one illustration for each story or poem
• Enlist at least one Creative Coaching client to mentor (for practice, for free)
• Reading at least two hours per day, including materials for the Creativity Coaching course, as well as Imagine, How Creativity Works; a devotional; If the Buddha Dated; and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, for fun
• Read at least one hour per week of Spiritually Healthy Divorce, Navigating Disruption with Insight and Hope
• Prepare and follow through with a summer curriculum for two brothers, on the topic of character development, meeting twice per week, one hour per session
• Exercise at least a half hour per day, 5-6 hours per week
• Maintain a healthy Eat for Life, Dr. Fuhrman vegan diet
• Lose 1-2 pounds per week
• Widen my circle of friends, while maintaining those that I already have
• Participate in Meetup.com events, once per week
• Take Fergie to the dog park at least once per week

What would keep me from meeting these goals?

Fear.

• Fear. Fear of myself, of what will find its way to expression; fear of success, of failure; of loneliness; of togetherness; of rejection; of acceptance; of becoming overwhelmed by my plans.
• Illness. At any point, my lungs could flare up.
• Of interference by Joe. The hearing for the Final Restraining Order takes place in three days, and I hope that the court will issue an order that he cannot ever contact me again.
• Of meeting someone for whom I will want to subvert my goals.

Lethargy.

• Practicing avoidance of people and myself through lethargy, distraction.
• Watching movies for distraction, staying up late to do it
• Failure to prepare healthy foods, out of a sense that "I'm not worth it."
• Failure to exercise, for the same reason.

Avoidance.

• What happens when I meet with success? I back off. When the poets loved my reading, and told me that, I didn't go back.
• When my photos won awards, I stopped entering them.
• When friends and family compliment my work, and offer suggestions on how to market/publish it, I stop working on it.