EFNV K-8 Elementary Education Component
Stories and Storytelling

Storytelling is one of the most powerful and primal pedagogical tools we have. In some ways, calling storytelling a teaching tool is like calling prayer wishful thinking. As William Kilpatrick shows in Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992) [Amazon] [Barnes & Noble], children — and even adults — learn values and moral foundations from narrative more than from any other source. Storytelling is so native to civilization that, as Ursula K. LeGuin points out, “There are cultures without written language, but there are no cultures without stories.” Our need for the narrative thread is strong and upon that need we can string lessons and learning that lasts a lifetime. Let’s look at how stories have been used in cultures for millennia.

Stories tell us how to live a good life. Jesus did not give his disciples a constitution and bylaws. He told stories. In telling stories, he invited his listeners in to a non-threatening look at what happens when certain kinds of behaviors are engaged in. The Buddha told stories and his disciples told stories about him including hundreds of Jataka tales, reputed to be about his past lives. In every major faith tradition, stories are used to tell people how to live a good life and what happens when people make poor choices. In a story, all of the “application” is up to the listener. And because the work of insight and application is done by the listener and not by the teller, the listening and insight go more deeply and are absorbed more powerfully. Lives can be transformed through the power of story.

Stories also tell us who we are. In many families, stories are used to let members know what sort of a family they are part of. In my husband’s family, for example, many of the stories revolve around issues of justice—allowing a poor man to siphon off water for his vineyard in Vienna and not prosecuting him, going to jail with Martin Luther King Jr. and volunteering for a dangerous, necessary job during WWI because “I have no family yet and am not so needed.” Stories like these, handed down from one generation to another let new family members know what it means to be a member of this family.

Stories tell a culture who they are. This is part of the harm done by television. The stories our children see on television are not only filled with violence, but they are filled with speed, snappy rude remarks designed to get a laugh and a constant setting up of animosities (siblings against siblings, parents against kids, etc.). As a result, children feel that this is who they are supposed to be.

However, despite the seductiveness of television, you, as a storyteller-teacher, can have much more power over how your students and children lead their lives. There is an apocryphal story that makes this point. In a small isolated village in Africa, anthropologists brought in a TV, and when it was turned on, everyone in the village was mesmerized. They watched it all the time. The local griot (storyteller) got upset because no one wanted to hear his stories. Then, after awhile, as suddenly as they had started, they stopped. People ignored the TV, no matter what it showed.

An anthropologist asked one elder, “Doesn’t the television tell a lot of stories?”

“Oh yes,” said the elder, “the television knows many more stories than the griot.”

“Well, then,” persisted the anthropologist, “Why don’t you watch it?”

“It’s true that the television knows many stories,” said the man, “but the griot knows me.”

This story points out the advantage that you have over any form of media. What you have to offer your students is that you know them. Your selection of stories that will fit them, your eye contact, your compassion for them, your awareness of what tickles and delights them or moves them is much more important than multi-media presentations.

So, storytelling is powerful as a tool for moral instruction, development of identity and as a cultural tool, for telling ourselves who we are—a people (or a classroom of people) who cherish one another, respect one another and are committed to nonviolence.

When can you use storytelling in a classroom? It would be easier to tell you when not to use it. Storytelling can be used everywhere—it can be used as a two minute “sponge” before the bell rings for lunch or dismissal. It can be used to kick off a discussion on a given topic. It can be used to make a point. It can be used as “the main event” in a lesson.

There is only one real danger in using storytelling in a classroom. Stories do not take kindly to dissection and immediate cognitive tasks. Let me be clear. There is a place for the kind of deep listening that students engage in when stories are told. Wrenching students out of that deep place to a much shallower, purely cognitive place where comprehension questions are asked and worsksheets are filled is discourteous to them, and will not allow the story to do its work. When you finish a story, let there be a little silence. If you must transition to something because of behavior or time constraints, try to have it be something routine, not requiring students to produce responses. The next day is soon enough to ask the low key question, “Who remembers yesterday’s story?” For young children, you can ask for volunteers to act out the story. Older children can simply talk about it in general terms. Vague questions like, “What was that all about?” “Does yesterday’s story make you think of anything else?” “Do you know any other stories like that?” are OK, but reading or listening comprehension questions shouldn’t even be considered. It’s also just fine to tell a short story every day for 4 days in a row (Monday through Thursday?) and then on Friday ask kids to reconstruct the stories with something like, “Who remembers some of the stories we heard this week?” In some ways, asking questions too soon is like planting a garden, and then digging up the seed a few minutes later to see if they are growing yet. Have faith that seeds have been sown every time a story is told.

Other than beating it to death with misguided pedagogical techniques, there’s not much you can do to mess up a story. Stories have a way of sinking deeply into children’s consciousness. Trust your material: tell lots of stories and the way your students behave will tell you that they are listening and that the listening is deep.
By now, I hope you are a convert—burning with enthusiasm to tell your students stories as part of your journey to creating a nonviolent classroom. If so, you now need to know about places to go to get stories. Below I’ve listed a few websites for books, a few books and a few storytellers’ names and websites to get you started.
To find books with themes of peace and nonviolence, check out the following website:

Quakerbooks.org is a website with many wonderful books. On the left hand side of the website is a list of topics. Click on any one, and a list of subtopics drops down. Check out both Literature for young people, organized by age and the section entitled PEACE.

A website that has links to actual stories for peace is StoryTellingCenter.net. Caren Neile received a grant and at the website cited above you can learn more about storytellers who are working with storytelling for peace. Included are links to stories, names of tellers who do peace stories and information about using stories for peace.

Kevin Cordi is a high school teacher who has been featured in Hope magazine and others. His mission is to help children, particularly teens through storytelling. He has several CDs or cassettes out,, including Voices of Illusion, which showcases ten stories told by youth exploring the importance of nonviolence. See his Reviews for Nonviolence online.

I also recommend the stories of Laura Simms. I have worked with Laura and she has great love and compassion. She has many CDs and cassettes that children and teens can enjoy and at the same time, hear about peace and compassion. Laura is especially interested in storytellings power to help heal children who are trauma survivors.

Laura is also a founding member of the Healing Story Alliance, At their site you will find information on storytelling and peace as well as storytelling for children in crisis. The healing Story Alliance is a special interest group of the National Storytelling Network.

Finally, there is a wonderful character education and service learning program that every educator who wants to promote nonviolence should know about. It’s the Giraffe Heroes Program. Based on storytelling, it has searched out the stories of over 1000 people who have “stuck their necks out for the common good at some personal risk.” By definition, the folks who stick their necks out are Giraffes. The curriculum is elegant, simple and infinitely flexible. It begins with telling the stories, the TRUE stories of real people who have stuck their necks out. Examples: Azim Khamisa and Plez Felix, two men brought together when one’s grandson murdered the other’s son. Realizing that there were victims at both ends of the gun, the two men began traveling to schools, talking to kids about gang violence and the costs of it. Other examples of Giraffes include a Navajo teen, disturbed by the violence, underage drinking and lack of social opportunities for Native American youth. He took his love of music and put together a DJ show where music was offered to Native kids at the reservation in an alcohol free setting. Another example is an 8 year old African American girl, who, through her perseverance, managed to bring together on the playground the Korean kids and the black kids who wouldn’t play with each other. The stories are inspiring and include people from 5 to centenarians. After learning about the stories of these real heroes, students are encouraged to look for Giraffes in their own neighborhoods, schools and in their studies. Finally, students, as a class, are asked to become Giraffes and design and carry out a service project they have designed. This curriculum helps kids experience the joy of service, the pleasure of problem solving and remains the best antidote to apathy I’ve ever come across. Learn more about the curriculum (written in multi-grade levels for K-12) on the web at giraffe.org. Just in the interests of honest reporting, I am one of two National Trainers for Giraffe, and it is the only commercially produced character education and service learning program that I can whole heartedly recommend. I receive nothing if you use or purchase their materials, though I’m sure the head office would be glad to know you learned about the site from this one. You can see Giraffe Stories at their website. Unlike many programs that try and teach deep lessons about nonviolence and moral behavior thourgh “word of the week” and worksheet methods, the Giraffe program emulates the archetypal heroes journey in story… hear about a problem, go questing to solve it, run into trouble and eventually succeed. If you have questions, or want further information, including information on how to learn to tell a story, please feel free to contact me through this website (fine to use my regular e-mailor whatever you think best).

—Sue Tannehill, teacher and storyteller