I recently read press headlines about the death of storytelling. Children are learning the intricacies of English grammar at school, but they are failing miserably at the art of describing or writing a story. A teacher reported that “children know what a fronted adverbial is, and how to spot an internal clause, and even what a preposition is – but when I set them a task to write a story, they broke down and cried.”
As a primary school teacher myself, I can understand where the claims are coming from. The fact that no importance is placed on storytelling can be frustrating not only because it means we aren’t celebrating children’s creativity, but also because storytelling is more than an art – it is a crucial skill for life and commerce. The best sales people are also great storytellers, and great marketeers touch customers’ hearts through storytelling. If the story is well written, customers simply believe it; they don’t search for product faults. They just buy it.
However true this situation may be in the classroom, I believe, thanks to PJ Library, this is not a challenge for my three children. Each of my kids have had a steady stream of age-appropriate Jewish books delivered to our home every month, since before they were able to read! These modern books make storytime fun. After asking me to re-read the same book for the tenth night in a row, my three-year-old has now learned to tell the story in his own words, using what he enjoyed and remembered from the repeated book readings. Without my children realising it, they are learning to become storytellers, giving them the confidence to create their own creative tales. Thank you PJ Library for building our Jewish bedtime library and for giving children the gift of being surrounded by stories.
PJ mum and teacher Ruth Lewis has been a primary school teacher for ten years. She has a passion for stories and a love of Jewish tradition. Ruth has passed her love of books onto her three children, who all love receiving and reading their PJ Library books.
April 18, 2018