Powah Chia-Tong
Professor Aimee Record
ENG 334.051W(6835)
12 September 2017
Society and Storytelling It is important to pass on our culture to our children. There are many ways to teach children their culture, but this one is probably the earliest method a child will be exposed to. Storytelling draws children’s attention while also teaching them many aspects of who they are and who they will be. While facts from history books are important, they should not be the only narrative with which to pass our knowledge to future generations. Spoken language, intonations, body language, and facial expressions contribute to knowledge as well. It is just as important to know the story as well as knowing how to tell a story. During my time when I was one of the co-leaders of the neighborhood early childhood center, I had many opportunities to interact with …show more content…
The earlier versions seem to be gorier and much more graphic. In Rachel Hartigan Shea’s article about the origins of Little Red Riding Hood, she interviews Jamie Tehrani, who states that “[f]olktales are like biological species: They literally evolve by descent with modification. They get told and retold with slight alterations, and then that gets passed on to the next generation and gets altered again.” Nowadays children aren’t allowed to roam the streets until they’re pretty much adults. This again reflects a different period of our history, and modern society is very different than what society was several hundred years ago. It is understandable then that this evolution occurs...since our children (and even ourselves) cannot relate to how society was hundreds of years ago, it is only natural that we try to re-tell these stories using modern elements to help them relate more, as well as to try and instill these still-importat lessons upon
Professor Aimee Record
ENG 334.051W(6835)
12 September 2017
Society and Storytelling It is important to pass on our culture to our children. There are many ways to teach children their culture, but this one is probably the earliest method a child will be exposed to. Storytelling draws children’s attention while also teaching them many aspects of who they are and who they will be. While facts from history books are important, they should not be the only narrative with which to pass our knowledge to future generations. Spoken language, intonations, body language, and facial expressions contribute to knowledge as well. It is just as important to know the story as well as knowing how to tell a story. During my time when I was one of the co-leaders of the neighborhood early childhood center, I had many opportunities to interact with …show more content…
The earlier versions seem to be gorier and much more graphic. In Rachel Hartigan Shea’s article about the origins of Little Red Riding Hood, she interviews Jamie Tehrani, who states that “[f]olktales are like biological species: They literally evolve by descent with modification. They get told and retold with slight alterations, and then that gets passed on to the next generation and gets altered again.” Nowadays children aren’t allowed to roam the streets until they’re pretty much adults. This again reflects a different period of our history, and modern society is very different than what society was several hundred years ago. It is understandable then that this evolution occurs...since our children (and even ourselves) cannot relate to how society was hundreds of years ago, it is only natural that we try to re-tell these stories using modern elements to help them relate more, as well as to try and instill these still-importat lessons upon