The Stonecutter
I had an opportunity to tell stories to a group of day campers. I told them the old folk tale titled “The Stonecutter.”
In the beginning of the story, the stonecutter, as he chisels away at the grand mountain, is hot and miserable and wishes to be something else—something more powerful than himself. His wish comes true and he becomes an emperor only to learn something else is more powerful.
Throughout the story, he transforms into many powerful things, and each time he’s transformed, he learns that something else is always more powerful. By the end of the story, he finally wishes to be… a stonecutter again.
After the telling, I asked the children what did they think about the story, and what happened at the beginning and the end.
A child, just about to start fourth grade, stood up and said, “At the end, the stonecutter was okay. He liked himself.”
Clink! Clink! Yahoo!
Did I try to tell them the theme or the moral or the lesson of the story? Nope! I just told the story; they “got it” all on their own.
I like to make my stories interactive. This group was a week away from going into grades 3 to 5, and I took a chance! A BIG one! I passed out spoons to several children and asked them to wait to clink them until they were cued. The clinks represented the sounds made by the chiseling of the stonecutter. All mayhem could have broken out, but it didn’t! They clinked the spoons at the beginning and the end of the story and with perfect timing. The children without spoons raised their arms to make muscles when the stonecutter said he wanted to be more powerful, and everyone repeated the words “I wish. I wish.” As a reward for great listening, they had permission to clink those spoons like crazy after the story. Let me tell you, a lot of “chiseling” echoed throughout the room!
So, find a story you like and go tell it. You might just get kids thinking and figuring things out all by themselves. Wait a minute! You’ll get them thinking, figuring, listening, and…having fun.
Now, go tell a story.