What's Your Story?

Nancy on the road to Taos in search of a story.

“Every child you pass in the hall has a story that needs to be heard. Maybe you are the one who is meant to hear it.” Bethany Hill

In preparing for the December issue of SchoolArts, I came across the above quote on Facebook that mentioned “story.” It was unattributed but I found the source after a little looking around on Google. The author is Bethany Hill, the principal of Central Elementary School in Cabot, Arkansas. I contacted her online and she generously allowed me to share her story of how it came about:

“When I was an AP (assistant principal) we had so many kids with ‘behavior issues’ who were actually misunderstood. Once we dug a little and learned their history, we learned how to better serve them. Also, when we listen to them before making assumptions or judgments, they will teach us a lot about them through their history. Then we can help them build their future story.”

In the art room, almost everything a student creates has a story, most often a personal one. As art teachers, we may be in the best position to carefully listen to our students’ stories and to help them tell their own stories through art.

Our articles this month detail many approaches to encourage your students to tell their own stories. For example, Memory Mapping by Melinda Turnbull presents maps as a form of recording stories, Paper Stories by Patricia Martinez and Melanie Robinson takes inspiration from American Indian ledger paintings, Recycled Reads by Carla Valentino transforms used books, and Take Out/Take a Chance by Betsy DiJulio challenges students to express the meaning of Chinese proverbs metaphorically.

We all make meaning of our lives through the stories we tell others and ourselves. How can we best help our students tell theirs and build their future stories? All we have to do is listen and understand.

Another great resource to spur ideas is StoryCorps, one of the largest oral history projects of its kind. StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 50,000 interviews from more than 80,000 participants since 2003. In recent times, some of the recorded stories have been retold as animations.