Challenges on teaching kids about storytelling
When I was a kid, I heard friends telling everyone how much they hated Portuguese. I guess it’s the same in other countries: kids may be complaining about having to learn English, or Spanish, or any other language.
It’s also curious that some cultures are widely known for their focus on math, like China or India. It’s like they recognize the power of math as a tool for science, engineering and technology. A doorway for the modern world, so to speak.
I can’t remember right now, from the top of my mind, any culture which puts focus on good writing since the early school.
That’s a shame. One of the most important skills for professionals in any industry today is storytelling. It’s the difference between being able to make a convincing presentation and a boring one. It’s an enabler of leadership. It’s a secret hidden in plain view. If that’s so, why is it so hard to motivate kids to learn it?
Corporate communications always relied heavily on messaging tools, in one form or other. The typewriter and the photocopier were instrumental to the raise of modern corporations and reigned supreme for a long time, before losing to a powerful new tool: email.
Email is with us for the past two decades at least. Most young professionals today were raised with an awareness of email. That makes hard to understand how many people come out of High School with a degree but don’t know how to craft a good email.
Visual presentations are another area where people come out of school unprepared. Few people know how to create a proper presentation. Slide decks in Powerpoint format may be on the way out now, but a new format is coming up strong: video. And with video, the need for storytelling is more evident than ever.
It’s curious to note how younger generations already live in a video immersed world, but at the same time, dedicate so little time to master it. Of course there are exceptions, some with a bright future ahead. But as a whole, it’s not a wide phenomena. There’s an opportunity there for kids that want to enter the workforce later with skills that will make a difference in their careers.
As a parent with young kids, I’m concerned about the lack of proper education on storytelling. I can do something on my side; besides setting an example, I can teach them, encourage them to write or tell a story, or to shoot and edit video for fun. However there’s little social stimuli besides our home activities for them to improve.
I’m not talking about making my kids young YouTube stars. For those with the natural ability or desire to make it, that’s a great choice, but it’s not for everyone. I just want that they could have more activities that would create both the opportunity, and the desire, to learn more about storytelling in all forms: writing, presenting, or filming.
School is already late on activities like programming or managing your online identity. Asking them to catch up with digital presentation skills or video seems out of order.
The worst part is still the bullying aspect of it. Social pressure keeps kids from learning important stuff. Activities that are perceived as ‘nerdy’ put kids at risk of being excluded by others who don’t care about it. It’s a shame because in a few years, everyone is going to need this skill.
In the end, I may be just one parent concerned about the education of my kids. But something tells me that there’s a big opportunity waiting for them, if they learn the right skills. Storytelling was always important, and still will be with us for the future.
