ener doing?
A storyteller is a specialist in emotional memory and these emotions can be=
channeled into the service of education. Goleman (l995) provides neurologi=
cal data on the windows of opportunity for shaping our children's emotional=
habits. A storytelling session provides such a window, and an exercise in=
empathy. He states that emotions are, in essence, impulses to act, the in=
stant plans for handling life that evolution has instilled in us. For exam=
ple, when the listener remembers and imagines the emotion of fear, impulses=
in the brains' emotional centers trigger a flood of hormones to the amygda=
le that put the body on general alert, making it edgy and ready for action.=
Cahill and his colleagues at the University of California Irvine, have det=
ermined that there is a consonance between the level of arousal and the ret=
ention of associated information in central memory. The more emotional arou=
sal, in the form of narrative, associated with pictures, the better the rec=
all of the details in the pictures. (Cahill, et al, 2006). Attention fixa=
tes on the threat at hand, although, in this story, the threat is imagined.=
The listener brings intense listening to the story, and processes it with=
both the rational and the emotional mind. These intertwine their different=
ways of knowing to guide the listener through the story. In addition, in =
a storytelling session, a kind of emotional contagion takes place. The bird=
sounds, when they occur in the story, also evoke the emotion of surprise. =
The lifting of eyebrows and other body language tells me that the listener=
s are surprised, and this is demonstrated in a larger visual sweep which pe=
rmits more light to strike the retina, a physiological advantage in this le=
arning environment. Goleman (1995), refers to it as a low-key version of th=
e Stanislavsky method, where the listeners re-create themselves in the mood=
of the teller.
(I think, therefore I am. I feel, therefore I am more.)
|