Storytelling for a strong moral foundation

Storytelling which throws open a plethora of situations for these young minds to think and understand. It opens the child’s cognitive ability to design and create visuals in their own minds, shares Nidhi Kundra. Most of us would vividly remember the animated story of ek chidiya anek chidiyan, that was commonly used as a filler on Doordarshan. The story was a traditional animation released by Films Division of India in 1974. The voice modulation and use of intonation by Sadhna Sargam, the singer, held even the adults glued to the television for those seven minutes.

We are talking about an era where mobile frenzy was still at bay and the younger lot believed in the comfort of grandma’s lap, creating their own make-believe world around her stories. Mankind has since travelled a long way and technical advancement has taken a toll over little amusements of life. The ipad-friendly generation is enamoured by the animated rhymes and stories on various apps, leaving little scope for imagination. Eventually, parents end up registering with creative development centers of all kinds to make their child think out of the box. That is truly the irony of the situation!

I happened to conduct a Story Telling Session at one of the premier institutions of Delhi for Grades Nursery to III over two days, in batches of about 50 students in one go. As the stories were read out from the Story Teller Series published under the banner of Edu Hub Publishing Company, problem situations were left open-ended for the audience. It was quite intriguing to see how these youngsters who needed help in tying their shoelaces could come up with the most amazing answers. Well, I had read time and again that children learn from observing more than rote memorization, but it became evidently clear that if left to themselves, they are capable of much better moral deduction. Here in comes storytelling which throws open a plethora of situations for these young minds to think and understand. Storytelling opens the child’s cognitive ability to design and create visuals in their own minds. Children of this century require them to be treated as thinking beings.

The real conflict arises when parents try to copy and paste over their children, the DO’S and DON’TS they grew up in an authoritative fashion. A little time spent with the Tales of Panchatantra, the Hitopdesha Tales, the Jataka Tales or the wit and wisdom of Akbar and Birbal, Vikram and Betaal and Tenali Raman, could bring back the warmth of traditional families into the stressed lifestyle we all have. Additionally, it would work as brainstorming sessions for the children who would get an opportunity to work out the rights and wrongs and therefore remember it for a lifetime.

The writer of the article is also the author of The Story Teller Series published by Edu Hub Publishing Company.