Teachers struggle to teach young people to read and write, but they are often struggling, I believe, not so much with students, but a culture which ignores them. A person cannot write unless they develop a sense of narrative about their own lives—a cohesive structure which places the individual in a context greater than self.
I think stories provide that framework and, indeed, it’s why stories are embedded in every culture. Such a story might be a folk tale, legend, mythology, or more formal literature. It might be a religion, a national or even political ideology. Why so vital? Because stories create order out of chaos, and give the individual a place in that order. Such stories allow people to belong.
Now consider the narrative structure in which vast number of our young people are engaged. I wish I could say reading. In fact, it is television narrative and video games that provide narratives which—to an overwhelming degree—are neither logical, nor rooted in reality. The young person who engages with these narratives will not, cannot, find herself/himself in them. Entertaining, perhaps, but ultimately they tell the boy or girl so engaged that their lives are not worth the telling. No wonder so many young people say, “I have nothing to write about.” They have not met themselves in a story.
2 thoughts on “Finding ourselves in the story”
This entry stopped me in my tracks. I need to think about this one.
Thank you! This is a very helpful way to think about reading and writing!