Gleaning Facebook: John Schulz on Youngtales Again

 From John Schulz

February 17, 2019

Finding the living room

The first part of November, I started a series of living room posts by quoting Emmy Lou Harris who said, “With radio, television, and other intrusions, we have lost the living room, where people would gather to tell stories, sing songs, and gossip.”

I’ve been in search of the living room for four months now and I find pieces of it in a lot of places.

This is the fifth year that Ridge and Valley Storyteller members have presented their storytelling clinics in local elementary schools. The clinics finish with a contest. The winners from each school this year will present their stories at the Rome City Auditorium on March 16 from 2:00-4:00. The afternoon event is free of charge.

Here are a couple of testimonials for the program: (borrowed from the website)

“My students have a difficult time with written expression. They have wonderful stories inside, but struggled to get them out. By learning how to be verbal storytellers, they became stronger storytellers as well as writers.”— Katie Chappell, Fifth Grade Teacher, Anna K. Davie Elementary, Rome City Schools

“I was able to participate in the Big Fibbers Storytelling Festival and observe the student experience of the YoungTales Storytelling Program. To see the [young tellers] in action and to see them excited and eloquent was amazing.”— Kanute P. Rarey, Management Consultant/Storyteller, Hayesville, NC.

And now we learn that “The living room is where you make it.”