In the cave scene described earlier in the Foundations of Early Childhood Education class, we needed to help students identify and understand their relationship to history and the history of the world. We used the past to talk about the present and implicate the future. It was necessary to have a starting point that was safe and comfortable for all students. The farther back in history one goes, the easier it is to find a starting point with which all ages, backgrounds, races and religions can identify. The cave-like environment and the storyteller helped students move from the concrete to the symbolic.
Education is more than facts.
The story as a processing tool helps give meaning to the learning. We drew a circle that took him in. They have a very special and rich history, and many wonderful stories that tell us about what they believe in and who they are as a people. Their stories make the birds and animals come alive like real people because the Tlingit believe that living things on the earth are there for a reason and have their own special powers. For them, the Raven is the most powerful and special of all living things because he is the one, they believe, who created the earth and all the wonderful things on it.