OK, so when my sister told me she was going to South Africa as part of a “Clowns without Borders” group, I was a little skeptical. (Doctors, I get. Clowns?)
Here’s a short documentary about their work. I’m posting it because it seems to relate both to Language Arts (storytelling) and Social Studies (oral history).
Josh, I agree with Valerie!
This whole post makes me wish that I had written down some of the stories that my Great Grandma’s used to share with me when I was little. Granted, I did not see the value of the things that they had told me when I was ten years old except, that the walk to school and back was ‘up hill both ways’.
It is clear to see the value that this project has in this community. Going to a community and asking people to share their stories may seem like a simple and inexpensive task but by the facial expressions and verbal reactions from the people in the video it is easy to see that this is a priceless act of kindness. Even though the people of this particular community may have grown up near each other and have seen each other every day, they may have never been asked to tell about their story. Storytelling gives a first person perspective on historical events that have never been recorded in a history book. One would argue that a person can learn more from hearing first hand experiences as well as relating another person’s story to their own lives.
Clearly a “Clown” can revive a culture and community that a Doctor cannot.
Josh, What a wonderful story! You NEED to take the story you just wrote and turn it into a piece to share as a mentor text! I can imagine writing it as a tall tale (4th grade curriculum) or a personal narrative!
I really enjoyed this video. It really shows how different generations have similarities as well as differences in the way they grew up and were raised. It also shows how older generations can help to shape younger generations through storytelling and how it is really important to see people connect through storytelling as well as how people can maybe see things from different points of view by listening to others. It also connects to our topic of history in social studies because it gives young people like us a first hand view of history through hearing stories from people who actually lived through important historical events and have personal views of what happened.
The video also reminds me of a personal story of how I became interested in and began doing something (wrestling) which is now a huge part of my life through a story that my grandpa always told me when I was young and still tells to this day. He always told me a story about how there was this wrestler named “Cast Iron” who was supposedly one of the best wrestlers in the state at the time (although no one in my family actually knows the accuracy of the story, “Cast Iron’s real name, or where he was from :]), but my grandpa tells the story about how tiny little Loren Krause from the Steele County Farm School went out and beat this wrestler who according to him had muscles growing out of his muscles so vividly that it developed a connection between my grandpa and I that will never be broken. His vivid, imaginative storytelling has always been a huge reason why him and I are so close and I feel like this is important because it allows people to make personal connections to each other.