Life Lessons through Storytelling: Children's Exploration of Ethics

Notes

155 155 Notes 1. Introduction 1. I use the term teaching stories to distinguish these stories from those taught as literature or from children’s stories that are purely entertaining. 2. Strengthening Community through Storytelling 1. Many times the words morals and ethics are used interchangeably. However , the term morals tends to refer to the content of knowledge while the term ethics tends to refer to a process of gaining knowledge about making life choices. Furthermore, though morals can refer to a deeper sense of knowing, it is often associated with specific lessons, as in the morals following most versions of Aesop’s fables. Because this book is primarily about studying a process of gaining knowledge, I will use the terms ethics and ethical more often than the related terms morals and moral. At the same time, I believe that the broader concept of morals—beyond specific virtues—cannot be separated from ethical processes. 2. According to one legend, Aesop gained his freedom because of his storytelling skills. 3. Drawing on Oral Traditions for a Contemporary Storytelling Event 1. I included more Navajo respondents than Kenyan respondents in this study since I was looking at a wider range of topics in the Navajo interviews, including how to bring storytelling back into their schools. I would have preferred to have traveled to Kenya to interview people currently living there, but I lacked the research funds for such a project. However, because the Kenyan respondents had spent their entire childhoods and most of their young adulthoods in Kenya, they were all highly knowledgeable about Kenyan storytelling traditions. 2. All the names used are pseudonyms. Regina Holyan selected the pseudonyms for the Navajo respondents and Naanyu Yebei, a native of Kenya, selected the pseudonyms for the Kenyan respondents.     • Notes to pages 00–00 156 3. This is from a story that is not considered to be a winter story. 4. This presentation included some ethical lessons such as the importance of serving your community without expecting payment for what you do. There may have been similar presentations at the rural school, but I did not witness any on the days we conducted interviews. 4. Of Fables and Children 1. Similar fables that portray the strong as abusing their power are “The Wolf and the Lamb,” in Hill (1989, 85), Jones (2003, 9), Townsend (1986, 41), Zipes (1992, 37); “The Hawk and the Nightingale,” in Hill (1989, 168), Jones (2003, 187), Townsend (1986, 154); and “The Fisherman and the Little Fish,” in Hill (1989, 171), Townsend (1986, 111), and Zipes (1992, 97). 2. Besides appearing in Winter and in Ash and Higton, this fable is also found in editions by Gatti and Jones. 3. In all the transcripts, I use // to indicate the point at which an interruption occurs. All of the students’ names are pseudonyms. 4. Other fables that show that the weak sometimes have an advantage over the strong include “The Gnat and the Lion,” in Ash and Higton (1990, 91), Gatti (2003, 105), Hill (1989, 176), Townsend (1986, 142), Winter (1984, 34); “The Eagle and the Beetle,” in Gatti (2003, 8), Hill (1989, 97), Jones (2003, 178), Winter (1984, 70); “The Mouse and the Bull,” in Hill (1989, 181), Jones (2003, 111), Townsend (1986, 102); “The Kid and the Wolf,” in Hill (1989, 20), Townsend (1986, 84), Winter (1984, 7). 5. Taken from Temple and Temple (1998), since the full version did not appear in Perry (1965). 6. Two other fables in which the lion’s and man’s power are considered are “The Bowman and the Lion,” in Hill (1989, 166) and Townsend (1986, 132), in which the man is more to be feared, and “The Lion in the Farmyard,” in Townsend (1986, 133), in which the lion is more to be feared. 7. This title and moral appear in Gatti (1992). In Gatti (2003), the title is the same, but no moral is provided after the fable. Besides appearing in Gatti (2003), Winter (1984), and Zipes (1992), this fable also appeared in the Townsend edition (1986). 8. Marissa uses the term “colored people” when she starts, perhaps because a guest speaker representing a historical figure used the term earlier in the day. The children later discuss whether this term is appropriate. 5. “The Wolf Really Wasn’t Wicked” 1. This fable also appeared in the following editions: Ash and Higton (1990), Jones (1912, 2003), Townsend (1986), Winter (1919, 1984), Zipes (1992). 6. Rabbit Tales (Tails) 1. We...