Storytelling

After the nice secondary school in East Sussex, I realised that I'd missed the point. While there were certainly new areas to explore because of what I'd learnt there, this whole journey began with my own students at Hastings. Rather than choose to take my already rationed camera crew to anywhere new, I'd take them home.

So, as my current students piled in for my Monday lecture, they found my former students, now grown up 2nd years and clearly confident with the tools of the trade that my lot had only just discovered. As the cameras rolled, I asked them to punctuate a piece from Stephanie Meyer's The Host that I had handed out without any punctuation, and which I was now reading with extra pauses for end of paragraphs and clear rhythm. Most made mistakes such as using commas instead of full stops - the most common error I find in their essays.

It occurred to me that this was a new phenomenon for many of them. I asked them how many had been read to as a child. Of the 25 or so in the class, five put their hands up.
I made a mental note to explore the Steiner principle of oral storytelling until the age of seven and to examine whether children who have enjoyed hearing the natural rhythm of language used to its best effect before they even open their first school book can punctuate. And to read to them in class.

And then I showed them Michael Jackson doing what inspired me in the first place. They indulged me and they talked about it for the camera, but the link between the rhythm of dance and the rhythm of language still isn't there. That's ok; I'll come back to Jackson. I've got some other people to see first...