Why storytelling is important?

    

Everyone’s life is usually full of all manner of stories, some may be boring or unpleasant, some, on the other hand, are so exciting that we may remember them vividly. As for me, there is something that has remained on my memory of such a tremendous impression while making my recollection work.

 I do well remember when the door swings open, and then I rush in no time into his room and threw myself into his arms, thirsting for the flow of words coming from the mouth of an older-timer. He used to hug me and start, with no hesitation or delay, narrating his impressive and never-ending stories, effect of which still working to date. I used to let my soul saunter along that street of thoughts and emancipating myself from every possible earthly link that could have subverted the enjoyment of the moment. I used to succumb to his eloquence of an experienced story-teller, and though sometimes people were present, obliviousness was dominant, however. My imagination grew wide by attempting to visualise every part of the story, and it was as though I had been watching a movie. The man died two years ago.

Through this personal experience, and child as I was, I would like to tell that this process of narrating a tale, or even while reading, could inevitably have a potent effect on a child’s imagination and his intellectual stamina.

When a child is listening to an individual who is narrating a story, the brain, through its sophisticated mechanism, turns into what let me call it the like of Hollywood’s studios; as a result, it makes up for the role of the television, by visualising the characters mentioned in the story, as well as their countenance and demeanour, and the whole course of the events. To reach this stage, the child makes an effort that helps him uncover his dormant skills that are likely to broaden his ability to imagine things.

In fact, imagination plays a critical role in how to shape a child’s personality, to wit:

§   It sometime helps him rely on himself to sort out his problems without asking for someone’s intervention, by improvising or coming up with a way out. This could pave the way for building up a sturdy and self-made person.

§      It has a good effect on enhancing the child’s style of writing by helping him acquire the capacity of organising his ideas following a perfect chronology, as well as providing him with abundance in ideas always on standby.

§         Imagination is the mother of invention:

It is no wonder that technology advances quickly, but what should be understood that no advance could have been reached if it were not to imagination. Ideas represent the real capital to be based on while attempting to improve human being’s life. A dreamer child is a future inventor.

§          A good listener, a good thinker, then a good communicator:

What distinguished civilised nations from “the uncivilised ones” is their capacity and readiness to settle their conflicts and frictions peacefully, but the origin of this emanates from the whole process of education. It starts at an earlier age of the kid, by instilling in him the basic principles to make him a person of dialogue. Story-telling, besides reading, can make a child a good listener and thinker, and also bring about the existence of individual who can grasp the set of rules within his geographical extremities, and cooperate in accordance with its laws and customs. When a misunderstanding is discerned, he tries to fix it by means of communication or following the path of institutions.

By Ismail KAMAL