Why stories matter for children’s learning

Storytelling is a shared, classroom experience that builds on children’s imagination and enriches their language skills. Scientists have found that children who have fiction read to them regularly find it easier to understand other people – they show more empathy and have better developed theory of mind.

Researchers have found that the brain activity that occurs when we read fiction is very similar to experiencing that situation in real life, so reading about a situation helps children work out how to solve it in reality. Listening to, and reading stories, is an important component in a child’s reading development

Story One: the bright side

Once there were brothers named Rafiq and Aqib aged 10 and 12. They always used to play together. One day they were playing together. They argued, and Aqib slapped Rafiq on his face. Rafiq went to his mother and complained about the incident. After hearing the story, she asked Rafiq to write, “Aqib slapped me on the face”, on the sand in the playing area. Rafiq did the same. After a few days, while Rafiq and Aqib were playing on the terrace, Rafiq slipped and was about to fall down. Aqib caught him and saved him from falling.

Both went to his mother and narrated the incident. Hearing this, their mother thanked God and told Rafiq to write, “Aqib saved my life”, in a piece of stone. Rafiq asked his mother, “On that day when he slapped me, you told me to write on the sand. But now, when he saved me, why did you ask me to write in the stone? His mother replied, “When someone hurts us in any manner, we should forgive them like the winds, which erased the letters from the sand. But when someone does a good thing for us, we should never forget like the engraving on the stone where the winds cannot erase it.”

Moral of the Story

In today’s world, most of us nurse grudge when someone hurts us. We never try to forgive. But when someone does a good thing to us, we easily forget. It is not the way of living our life. In simple terms, forgive when someone hurts and never forget when someone does good things for us. It will help us to live a peaceful life.
Story Two: Reach new heights

Ahmed and his friends used to go mountain climbing once every year. This time they decided to climb mountains in Kashmir. They reached the famous mountain spot in Gulmarg and were surprised to see many people climbing the mountains. Ahmed and his friends started wearing all the mountain climbing gear and started. In no time, they reached the top. After reaching there, friends decided to camp there. Then Ahmed saw another mountain where only a handful of people were trying to climb it. He told his friends, “Let us go and climb that mountain also. It will be fun and challenging instead of camping here.” A friend replied, “No way, I have heard people talking about that mountain.

It seems the path is difficult to climb, and only a few people can climb.” People nearby hearing the conversation made fun of Ahmed and said, “If it was easy to climb, why we were sitting idle here.” Hearing them, Ahmed took that as a challenge and went alone towards climbing the peak. Two hours later, he reached the top of the hill. People who were already their welcomed Ahmed with a round of applause. Ahmed was happy having climbed the peak. He could see the beautiful views of nature from the top. He started a conversation with people and asked them, “While climbing this peak, I felt it was not so difficult. Then why only a handful of people here? If people could climb the below peak, they can climb here also if they put in some effort.” A veteran climber replied, “Most people in the crowd right there are happy with what they find easy.

They never think that they have the potential to achieve more. Even people who are not happy there do not want to take any risk. They think if we take risks, they will lose what they already have. But to reach a new peak, we need to put in our effort. Many of them do not show any courage, and they remain part of the crowd the whole life. And keep complaining about the handful of courageous people and call them lucky.” Hearing this, Ahmed thanked the veteran for explaining the importance of courage in our life.
Moral of the story:

In our life, many of us stay in the comfort zone. But to achieve something big, we need effort and courage. We should never stop, have the courage to push ourselves out of the crowd. Focus on moving to the handful of people, whom the people called Courageous People.

Story Three: The Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Until it suddenly stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings.

The man didn’t think anything of it and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body. Despite the kind heart of the man, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening; were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings. To prepare itself for flying once it was out of the cocoon.
Moral:

Our struggles in life develop our strengths. Without struggles, we never grow and never get stronger, so it’s important for us to tackle challenges on our own, and not be relying on help from others.

Story Four: Resilient family

In a village, there was a family of four. Father was a mechanic while mother was a tailor. They had two daughters. They planned to move to a city for their daughter’s education. Both their daughters got admission to a well-established school. Father took a mechanic's job in a company while the mother joined as a tailor in a textile company. As the days passed, the workload for both father and mother increased. In their father’s company, some of the co-workers delegated most of their work to him since they used the power of being key members of the Employee’s Union and him being a newbie and outsider. On the mother’s side, her company forces her to work overtime to increase the output. Meanwhile, students in their daughter’s class started teasing them. They complained to their parents about that. His father told them, “In life, we may face adversity, and it can affect each one of us differently.

But it is up to us to decide how we react to that. So, I would suggest you react positively. Focus on your studies. If things go out of your control, you can complain to the teachers. Otherwise, focus on your life, soon others will understand.” Then mother asked him, “We are also facing a similar situation in our work. What do we have to do?” He replied, “For us right now, we have to give our daughters proper education and improve our financial situation. So, we need to manage this stress and use it as a ladder in our life. We have to be resilient in difficult situations to bounce back”. As the years passed, all of them excelled in their career. As a family, they were happy and financially stable.

The elder daughter becomes a doctor, and the younger one becomes an IAS officer. Father is now chief mechanic and the Union leader. Mother is now a supervisor in her company. They experienced adversity, stress, threats, health problems, and financial problems throughout their life. But collectively, as a family, they faced each situation with resilient behaviours, thoughts, and actions that helped them grow and achieve their dreams.

Moral:

Life is full of twists and turns, and every day it gives us challenges. It affects each one of us differently. But we can manage them comfortably if we are resilient. Resilience is not something we cannot learn. We can learn over time by facing challenging situations and bouncing back. It empowers you to grow and improve your life.

Dr Showkat Rashid Wani, Senior Coordinator, Directorate of Distance Education, University of Kashmir