Category: Focus on How We Teach (Fall 2004)

Imagination leads to education

We understand and create the world for ourselves differently because of the stories we hear. Since we retain stories longer than lectures, those tales teach us our important values, traditions and faith in a non-threatening way. Educator/storyteller Marni Gillard (1996) has written that “stories will gently teach us, not scold us or shame us into being other than we truly are.” Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav said that stories bypass the intellect and enter directly into the heart. In Judaism, the heart is identified as the seat of memory, but it is also the seat of wisdom that combines both the cognitive and affective realms. As a result, stories and storytelling activate a powerful learning tool - that of the imagination. Kieran Egan (1989) has framed the need to focus on imagination in the educational process:

Imagination is not some desirable but dispensable frill, but…is the heart of any truly educational experience; it is not something split off from “the basics” or disciplined thought or rational inquiry, but is the quality that can give them life and meaning; it is not something belonging properly to the arts, but is central to all areas of the curriculum; it is not something to ornament our recreational hours, but is the hard pragmatic center of all effective human thinking…Stimulating the imagination is not an alternative educational activity to be argued for in competition with other claims; it is prerequisite to making any activity educational (p. 458).

Thus, it is essential that teachers integrate text study with the art of storytelling in order to put the oral tradition back into the classroom.

The voice of the teacher evokes an appeal to the senses and emotions

The voice of the teacher creates an immediate relationship between the teller/teacher and the listener, one that sets images in the mind for later recall - even when we tell ourselves the stories. To illustrate this idea, there is a ‘warning’ in Eruvin 54a that one should study with a loud [sounded] voice in order to retain the learning. Walter Ong (1982) explores the element of sound and how it situates a person in the middle of the existential experience between the speaker/teacher and the listener. He writes: “Sight isolates, sounds incorporates…When I hear, however, I gather sound simultaneously from every direction at once: I am at the center of my auditory world, which envelopes me, establishing me at a kind of core of sensation and existence…sound is thus a unifying sense” (p. 72).

The relationship of the teacher-teller and the story listener is dynamic and reciprocal, an experience that is alive, spontaneous and “in the moment.” This personal and positive experience can affect the listener forever because it is panim el panim – “face to face”. This transmission, not of facts, but of an ability to create a sense of wonder, arouse curiosity and make meaningful connections, is a reciprocal process between two people in which there is mutual contact and trust. Wonder and curiosity are gifts which act as catalysts for lifelong learning and action. Expanding on this theme, Ong (1982) writes:

Spoken utterance is addressed by a real, living person to another real, living person or real, living persons, at a specific time in a real setting which includes always much more than mere words. Spoken words are always modification of a total situation which is more than verbal…In oral speech, a word must have one or another intonation or tone of voice – lively, excited, quiet, incensed…” (p. 101).

Storytelling creates an extraordinary opportunity to “feel” the sounds of the words with all their connotations. Telling sets the story in the heart. Walter Benjamin, in his essay “The Storyteller,” wrote: “The storyteller takes what he tells from experience – his own or that reported by others, and he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening to his tale” (1968, p. 87). It is through the voice, a person’s exquisite musical instrument, that the words create internal technicolor worlds and an appeal to the senses.

In the mid-1970s, I established a storytelling program for youngsters ages 8-12 at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA in New York City, in conjunction with Stern College, called “Kernels of a Pomegranate.” At one of these programs I told the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers. After the story, I passed around very large sheets of paper and placed a mound of crayons in the center of the floor asking the young listeners to draw any scene or moment from the story that they remembered. Afterwards the listeners would tell the story of their drawings. One young boy, about 10 years old, held up his picture. The paper was completely filled with inverted V stripes (each one about 1 inch in width) and colored with vivid colors of the rainbow. He then explained that this was his drawing of Joseph’s coat of many colors. Then he took a breath and added, “It’s a close-up!” I still recall my amazed reaction. (The 1970s was years before zoom lenses and camcorders were easily available to children.) This young boy “saw” a different and fresh perspective while he was listening to the story. His visual imaginative interpretation was unique to him. Because of his vision, I continue to see his wonder-struck close-up every time I retell that Biblical story. No doubt he continues to remember the entire story in his very being.

Kieran Egan (1989) describes the importance of stories and the development of imagination in his article “Memory, Imagination and Learning: Connected by the Story”:

Stories work by embedding their contents into vivid events and images that carry strong emotional coloring…Incidental to its function as a memorization device, story also, almost incidentally, evokes, stimulates, and develops the imagination. That is, the condition of mind that was found most favorable for storing the messages of the myth stories was one in which the mind was engaged by vivid images…In stories, narrators can direct the affective response of listeners to whichever elements they wish. Thus, in transmitting the lore of the culture through myth stories, this remarkable narrative device could be used to engage the emotional commitment of the listeners to the social group and to its customs and mores” (pp. 456-7).

Seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, touching, hearing: all of our senses, which help us to learn, remember, and identify with our tradition and with our community, are stimulated through the spoken word. It is through the senses that we recall emotions. It is the emotions that cause us to act in concert with our own group and to integrate the aspirations of the individual with the ideals of the community.

Listening as part of the oral tradition develops values

Listening is a dominant theme in Judaism that is highlighted in the central tenet of Judaism, namely, “Shma Yisrael” (Devarim 6:4). While shma is often translated as “hear,” a more accurate interpretation would be “listen.” Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the Jews are the People of the word Shma, listen!

It is no accident that “Shema Yisrael – Listen, O Israel” has become imperative in Judaism. God needs an audience. Thus, the quality of any exchange depends upon the listener” (Wiesel, 1987/1996, p. xiv).

Listening is an active process of hearing, attention, understanding, sensory responses, and remembering. While hearing refers more to receiving sounds in the auditory mechanism, listening goes beyond hearing by internalizing those sounds, interpreting the sounds, and making them your own. How wise Solomon was when, in the first four chapters of I Kings, he requests an understanding heart, “lev shomea,” literally, a heart that listens very carefully. Once again we see an emphasis on listening.

In order to have an exchange, there must be a speaker, namely, a storyteller to bring the narrative alive by speaking the words from the “listening” heart in order to reach a “listening” heart of the student. To me, storytelling is a trialogue between the teller and the listener and the story. In storytelling, the voice of the teller, along with the stories themselves, create an atmosphere to bind together members of a group through generations. Listening to stories internalizes the faith and values of the Jewish People in a profound manner.

Scholars in the field of communication have discovered that the oral transmission of tales is literally mind-expanding. In his article entitled “Paleoneurology and the Evolution of Mind,” Harry Jerison (1976) states that “We need language more to tell stories than to direct actions.” He continues:

In the telling we create mental images in our listeners that might normally be produced only by the memory of the events as recorded and integrated by the sensory and perceptual systems of the brain.

Mental images should be as real, in a fundamental sense, as the immediately experienced real world. Both are constructions of the brain, although it is appropriate to encode them in order to distinguish image from reality. The role of language in human communication is special because we have the vocal and manual apparatus to create spoken and written language. In hearing or reading another’s words we literally share another’s consciousness, and it is that familiar use of language that is unique to man (p. 232).

Shared stories become guides for desirable conduct and values. Passed down from generation to generation, these communal stories educate and develop group identity in a creative and inspiring way. Telling stories gives the student a storehouse of memories from which to draw upon the values of the Jewish People. Because the values are presented in a form that is entertaining, esthetic and educational, the student attaches special importance to those values.

Through highly creative narratives and the oral traditions, the rabbis taught long-lasting lessons because they appealed to the imagination and sense of wonder of the listener. As a shared experience, narratives activate the right side of the brain and allow the brain to create and color the images. Research has shown that the right side of the brain controls the creative processes and that it is the brain’s spiritual and moral center. For example, listening to the wonders of the creation of the world in Bereshit, “these stories touch and enthrall the human soul with their sublime simplicity, high seriousness and marvelous beauty. And they are absolutely irreplaceable in the moral and religious training of our children” (Hertz, 1981, p. 141). Or the one about a hyperbolic tall tale of a fish so huge that it destroyed forty cities, found in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Baba Bathra. Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah tells these kinds of stories about his travels. While these stories delight, they also teach, and the images of the story remain in the imagination forever. These images then serve as a trigger to recall the lesson itself and enhance moral development.

Study of Text and Telling Stories Are Partners

Our tradition teaches that the obverse side of text study is telling by “word of mouth.” There are many times and places in the curriculum to introduce a story while studying text. Stories, as powerful teaching tools, can be used for language arts instruction and for Torah study. A teacher can tell a story where the content of the story and/or themes are the focus; where characters wrestling with questions and relationships or a historical approach are the focal point. Whatever the lesson, stories work when told at the beginning of the lesson because they will resonate in the students when they then study the actual text. Also, the story can be interwoven within the lesson as a springboard to illustrate values or actions. A story can also be told at the end of the lesson as a reward for positive behavior and participation, and the story itself can be followed up with some creative or artistic activities. (For more about this idea, see my article “Participatory Storytelling: A Partnership between Storyteller and Listener”, in Dailey, ed. 1994, pp. 95-98.)

With storytelling, the three components, the voiced word of the teller, the story, and the listening of the student, work together to penetrate to the very heart of an idea or value and to remain in our well of wisdom.

Rabbi Hanina said: ‘Until the time of Solomon the Torah could have been compared to a well full of cool refreshing water, but because of its extraordinary depth no one could get to the bottom. What was necessary was to find a rope long enough to tie to the bucket in order to bring up the water. Solomon made up this rope with his parables and thus enabled everyone to reach to the profoundest depths of the well’ (Ausubel, 1948, p. 56).

Since the Jewish people have had a dynamic compenetration between text and the oral tradition, storytelling appeals both to the cognitive and affective realms of a student. In this narrative process, when both the intellect and the emotions are engaged, along with its appeal to the imagination and a heart-felt connection between teacher and student, real long-lasting learning can take place. As Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi states in Avoda Zara 19a, “Only the lesson that is enjoyed can be learned well.”

References

Ausubel, N. (1948). A Treasury of Jewish Folklore. New York: Crown Publishers.

Benjamin, W. (1968). The Storyteller. Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. New York: Schocken Books.

Bialik, H. N. and Y. H. Ravnitzky, eds. (1992). The Book of Legends: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash (Sefer Ha-Aggadah). (W. G. Braude, Trans.). New York: Schocken Books.

Dailey, S., ed. (1994). Tales as Tools: The Power of Story in the Classroom. Jonesborough, The Storytelling Press.

Egan, K. (1989, February). “Memory, Imagination, and Learning: Connected by the Story”, Phi Beta Kappan, 70, 6, 455-459.

Gillard, M. (1996). StoryTeller StoryTeacher: Discovering the Power of Storytelling for Teaching and Living. York, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.

Hertz, J. H., ed. (1981). The Pentateuch and Haftorahs. London: Soncino Press.

Jerison, H. (1976, January). “Paleoneurology and the Evolution of Mind”, Scientific American, 232, 90-101.

Ong, W. (1982). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World. New York: Routledge Chapman & Hall.

Wiesel, E. (1987.1996). “The Storyteller’s Prayer”, In P. Schram, Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another.(pp. xi-xvii). Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc.