Imagine in the old days... when the night fell, people would gather around the fire and someone would have step out to share his or her stories...
Nowadays, you can find stories in almost everywhere: books, movies, audios, DVD's, newspapers, gossips etc.
Everyone loves a good story, isn't it?
It could be a real story.
It could be exaggerated.
It could be a totally made up story.
Nonetheless, the audience would be captured. Mesmerized. Amazed.
Some stories are meant to purely entertain.
Some stories contain valuable experience to be shared with others.
Some stories are meant to depart certain messages for educational purposes.
I personally see that a story, any story, can fulfill all these purposes, especially as an educational material!
A Story Should Entertain!
First of all, a story should be entertaining.
If it is meant to send out certain messages, it must be entertaining. This is essential because if you can't capture your audiences' attention, how can the message be carried over?
Therefore, irregardless of the purpose of the story, it must be entertaining.
It can be dramatic.
It can be funny and humorous.
It can be made realistic, or even imaginative, like the stories about flying superheroes and wall crawling man.
It may also touches people's heart, and squeeze their tear glands!
As long as it is interesting to the targeted audience, you've gotten their attention.
A Story Can Be An Experience Sharing...
Stories that has experience to be shared are normally real stories.
People loves to listen to real stories. Curious, especially.
That's why it is always interesting to get people to share their experiences. Some are even addicted to gossips... which may or may not be real. Or even rumours...
"Gasp! Have you all heard about Mrs. Jone down the street?" is a sure way to capture people's attention, irregardless whether the story that follows is real or not.
I would like to always see experience sharing by others as a mirror. It's always good to learn from another's experience, whether to follow their good examples or to learn from their mistakes.
They are extremely valuable, and will certainly reduce my own learning curves.
A Story Can Depart Messages...
Now, other than learning from others' experience, I always love to look for hidden messages, moral, lessons, meanings, values, symbolicals etc in any stories I come across.
Whether the story is found in print, in a book, in a movie, or it's been told to me verbally, I'm always amazed by the messages found in them.
This is especially so if at that time, I am looking for something... an indication, or even some hints about the challenges I'm currently facing.
some messages can be very obvious.
Some messages can be hidden and become obvious only to certain individuals.
Some messages can be uncovered only after a few times you've read or heard of the story.
Some messages are symbolical - and depends on the interpretation of each individual.
Therefore, as parents who use stories to convey good moral and messages to their children, it should be done with proper guidance, to ensure that the young minds receive the right messages.
Stories As Educational Materials...
Stories are good educational materials, even for adults.
From my experience in my team building trainings, adults are equally curious to listen to stories, and the best is - they are able to grasp the hidden messages faster.
"Mr. Soo, can you tell us more stories?" is a common request I received after I started my story telling in my team building session...
Therefore, for children and adult alike, it can be concluded that stories are indeed excellent materials to be used in conveying educational messages, whether they are about moral, ethics, motivation, encouragement, relationship, spiritual etc, because stories entertain and teach in the same time.
Who doesn't like to be entertained? And if good messages can be brought across in the same time, why not?
So, go ahead and tell a good story today! There's always something to be learned from a story.
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