HONESTY RESPECT, COMPASSION: strengthening character through stories by Fran Stallings

Appeared in the January 1997 issue of Storytelling Magazine, pgs. 24-27.

For reprint permission or to contact:
Fran Stallings
1406 Macklyn Lane
Bartlesville, OK 74006-5419
or call 1-800-525-4514

This past summer, I offered a Continuing Education course for teachers, called "Honesty, Respect, Compassion." I hoped to explore the way our ancestors in many cultures used stories to teach youngsters about desirable behaviors and the consequences of alternatives.

My students were experienced educators from tiny ranch and mining towns in Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma. They ranged from kindergarten and primary teachers to a high school American History teacher who was already telling a lot of biography. Two were moving to new towns where they could only get work as substitutes. And there was a high school Special Education teacher from a New Mexico mining town, whose charges included both "trainable" students (mental age pre-K) and a group of young jail veterans, one of whom had tried to kill her.

I couldn't tell these classroom stories to tell for each problem. In fact as a traveling teller I can hardly begin to imagine some of the situations they face. But I could continue building their skills and confidence (well begun in our prerequisite basic course), and help them learn to spot tellable tales and evaluate genuine teachings—vs. some of the didactic fluff which is being marketed to desperate educators.

We started with a review of children's developmental stages affecting moral decision-making (see Lamme et. al. Chapter 1 for an excellent summary of theories). These educators had studied Child Psychology and they knew their students well, from egocentric kindergartners to ambivalent teens. The review went quickly.

Exercises included a discussion of stories they remembered from their own growing years: what themes or bywords stuck with them, and helped with a decision or attitude? As I expected, several folks wryly admitted that sometimes the message they got, was probably not the one the teller intended. We recalled this point several times later in the course, when considering how much control a teller has over the message that gets across!

We also did exercises on developing personal experience stories to share real-life consequences. The teachers became more aware of the value of sharing their own experiences—negative as well as positive—and of the many unrecognized story teachers they had had in their own lives.

But the bulk of our time was spent discussing particular stories which had already been tried with students: how the stories were used, and the results they got with students. (See Section 2, Stories Tested in the Classroom) My teachers shared their insights into parallel situations in their own classrooms. Sometimes we were surprised at the message someone else found in a story we might have passed over.

One of my e-mail correspondents, fairly new to storytelling, had tried telling "The Hermit and the Children" to his sixth grade class on the first day. He hoped that its powerful closing line, "The answer is in your hands," would tell his students that the responsibility for their school experience rested with them, He didn't tell me what impact it had on his students – but the experienced teachers in my class cringed at this anecdote.

"That's not a first day story," said a sixth grade teacher. "It has nothing about community or cooperation. And it's so heavy, dark . . ."

She would prefer, she said, to start with a story such as "The Difference Between Heaven and Hell" or "Wine for the Feast" – which, coincidentally, are favorites of both my hometown teacher friends and my e-mail correspondents who work with older students. The primary grade teachers felt that "The Turnip" held a similar message about cooperation and the importance of each least one's contribution.

Such stories have a light touch. Listeners can smile at what the story reveals to them. They'll want to hear it again. And later, when a reminder is needed, a teacher can say, "Remember those long chopsticks . . ." or "Won't you help us pull up the turnip?" The stories can become a part of the class' shared subculture – just as they did in our ancestors' villages.

However, these experienced teachers were leery of stories that ended with "The moral of this story is:" If a story means different things to different people, one's summary can puzzle or annoy others. Many of us recalled cringing in childhood from Aesop's fables for just this reason. Besides, as Elizabeth Ellis told me, a ready-made moral "shortcuts people's inner work" depriving them of the chance to reach their own conclusions.

"But," asked the sixth grade Gifted/Talented teacher, "are we really sure that Aesop himself put those didactic morals on his stories? If he was really a slave who had to hide his lessons in animal fables, would he dare?"

Well, duh. I never thought about that, having squeamishly avoided Aesop. I promised to check into it (turns out, she was right – many scholars believe later collectors added the Morals) but we all felt better about Aesop already.

I had brought in picture books of many of the recommended stories, current collections which offer stories to teach Virtues, plus some curricula published especially for Character/Moral Education. (See Recommended Reading.) My teachers checked these out overnight and shared their cool-headed evaluations next day, often spontaneously retelling stories which had struck their fancy. Their views of these earnest collections and curricula, from their position "in the trenches," taught me a great deal.

They preferred collections with the purported "virtues" cross-indexed in the back, suggesting various implications for each story (as in Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope), rather than labeling a group of stories for one supposed virtue. They found some oddly labeled stories; for instance, the Donner party may have been paragons of Persistence, but that wasn't all . . . They evaluated the curricula with the same skepticism, very alert for well-intentioned but weak or misdirected efforts. "Well, I'd take it and adapt it my way. They don't know my kids."

They appreciated all the cultural background information an editor could include, and were critical of collections which lacked adequate source citations. "This is Honesty and Respect??"

Courage, honesty, loyalty, imagination, integrity, generosity

But how could we bring coherence to the many different Virtues? We found it useful to grasp Empathy and Self-Discipline as fundamental to all the other virtues, as suggested in "Schools as Moral Communities" (see Recommended Reading) Empathy and Self-Discipline became benchmarks for all our further discussion. And when my teachers pointed out that Imagination is key to both of these, we felt that storytelling deserved an invitation into the classroom, if only to exercise students' imaginations!

Now – where to start?

The basic course had developed multiple curriculum excuses for telling a story. But they could see how you might make a mistake by dropping a heavy-handed lesson on your class too soon.

I introduced Elizabeth Ellis' strategy of building trust between teller and listener by starting with light, entertaining tales before moving on to the deeper, more meaningful ones (see Elizabeth Ellis SIDEBAR). Ellis' sequence of story types, although developed to organize a storytelling concert, proved to be just what they wanted as a guideline for the whole teaching year!

I delighted to see how they were adapting and modifying stories to fit their own language and their own students' experience. They were working out how they would establish a shared "class subculture" of stories, and then delve deeper into the meanings and references. They even began to see moral teaching points in the funny little tales I had taught them to begin building their story-retelling skills such as "Wide Mouth Frog," "The Old Coat," and "Lazy Jack."

By our final meeting, the New Mexico Special Ed teacher was on the trail of Coyote stories for her young felons. If you car do anything wrong, Coyote has tried it – and the stories teach by showing the consequences. She also liked the Ken Felt version of "The Difference Between Heaven and Hell," about controlling rage.

The high school history teacher loved NSA's Many Voices for its true biographies, which incidentally illustrate positive character traits. But he also had to survive twenty minutes of "Team Time" every week, an innovation which counselors hoped would build better communication between students and their faculty advisor. "It was a farce last year," he admitted. "We didn't know what to do with each other. But now I've got a plan. I'm going to tell them stories." He said he planned to start with amusing tidbits to accustom his students to this novelty. Then he would gradually introduce the tales which had some meat in them, themes for discussion or just for private mediation. He was looking forward to when they'd share a "story subculture."

The middle school teachers saw the deeper value in scary stories and urban legends, which often boil down to cautionary tales (see Richard & Judy Dockery Young's excellent essay in their Scary Story Reader for young adults). This genre certainly holds listeners' interest, and part of the fascination may be fear of the consequences if . . . a good springboard for discussion.

The primary grade teachers had cross-curriculum lesson plans in hand, with gentle lessons ready in the wings. And the substitutes told me they felt they could "go in anywhere, loaded for bear."

Fran Stallings of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, has been a professional storyteller since 1978. She tells and teaches nationwide. An Artist-in-Education with the Oklahoma Arts Council since 1985, she has worked intensively with thousands of K-12 students and teachers. Presentations include 1988 NAPPS Summer Institute and 1991 NAPPS Congress on storytelling in education. She directs the SunFest Storytelling Festival. Contact her at 1406 Macklyn Lane, Bartlesville, OK 74006, 918-333-7390.

Bennett, William J., ed. The Book of Virtues: a Treasury of Great Moral Stories. (Simon & Schuster, 1993) The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey (Simon & Schuster, 1995) The Children's Book of Virtues. (Simon & Schuster, 1995) The Book of Virtues for Young People: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories. (Silver Burdett Press, 1996) Abundant material, scanty citations.

Creeden, Sharon, ed. Fair is Fair: World Folktales of Justice. (August House, 1995) Well-selected and retold folktales with notes linking them to contemporary legal principles and issues of justice.

Greer, Colin and Herbert Kohl. A Call to Character: A Family Treasure. (HarperCollins, 1995) Literary tales and original oral tales by storytellers including Elizabeth Ellis, Doug Lipman. Deep stories, fine citations.

Lamme, Linda L, Suzanne L. Krogh, Kathy A. Yachmetz, Literature-based Moral Education: Children's books & activities for teaching values, responsibility, & good judgment in the Elementary School. (Oryx Press, 1992) Three experienced classroom teachers review research & theory, tell anecdotes from their own experience, and recommend literary sources. Extensively annotations.

MacDonald, Margaret Read. Peace Tales: World Folktales to Talk About. (Linnet Books, 1992) Strong, moving stories about how we get into – and can get out of – conflict. Excellent springboard for discussions.

Spinning Tales Weaving Hope: Stories of Peace, Justice and the Environment, ed. By Ed Brody, Jay Goldspinner, Katie Green, Rona Leventhal and John Porcino. (Stories for World Change Network, 1992) Available from Yellow Moon Press, 1-800-497-4385.

Young, Richard & Judy Dockery. Scary Story Reader. (August House, 1993) Includes excellent afterword about the psychological role of this genre as cautionary tales for young adults.

Many Voices: True Tales from America's Past (National Storytelling Press 1995) Biography and historical fiction.

"Schools as Moral Communities: Methods for Building Empathy and Self-Discipline," paper by education leaders nationwide, is available from The Communitarian Network (2130 H. St NW, Washington DC 20052) for $3.