Jakarta - "Who wants to get a gift from me?"
"Me ... Me ... Me ..." All of the kindergarten children gathered in the auditorium shouted.
"Do you want a toy, a book or money?"
Some children shouted, "Toy!" But the vast majority clamored for money. Hardly any wanted a book.
Self-described master storyteller Agus Djafar Sodik has been performing storytelling for children for the past 30 years.
In his performance at the School of Humanities, University of Indonesia last week, the 47-year-old storyteller, Kak Agus, did an impression from popular a sinetron soap opera and then -- for a prize -- asked the children to name the show.
Unbelievably, most of the children were able to answer correctly.
Salma, a co-founder of Rumah Cahaya public library in Jatipadang, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post she was not surprised by the response.
Accompanied by five pre-kindergarten children to the storytelling show, she said "Every time we visit people`s home around 11 in the morning or from 5 to 9 at night, there`s always a TV on in the living room. No wonder, children know all the shows by heart."
The 48-year-old Salma, who started the library in her garage earlier this year, said it was not easy to get children in the neighborhood to visit her 2,500-book collection.
She said storytelling can be a powerful tool to make children love reading books.
Yet, she observed that not many parents, nowadays, had the awareness and time to tell stories to their children.
Agus echoed Salma, saying: "Although it may be a cliche, parents are still busy struggling to make ends meet."
Apparently, most people are still stuck with the idea that storytelling consumes time and can only be done before children go to bed.
Agus said parents should know that storytelling didn`t have to take a lot of time. "Five minutes is enough. For example, instead of letting children run around supermarket aisles parents can tell stories while queuing to pay the groceries."
Another storyteller, 27-year-old Mochamad Ariyo Faridh Zidni better known as Kak Aio, concurred with him: "We can tell stories to our children anywhere, anytime."
"When we are waiting for the dentist or trapped in traffic."
Aio, who chairs 1001 Buku Community, a network of volunteers and caretakers making libraries for poor children, said there were various types of stories to be told.
"Not only folktales and history, but also the true-life stories of grandma and granddad or even mum and dad`s love story."
Aio, who has been studying storytelling techniques since 1999, added, "It is what I call welcoming the child as a part of the family. By sharing true stories of that kind, parents are creating a mutual experience with their own children."
Besides suggesting that a story told is not always based on imagination, both storytellers agreed that the story must contain universal virtue values to motivate the children to do something good or to stop doing something bad.
Storytelling with the assistance of a picture book can motivate children to learn the alphabet and words from an early age. "A child listens, develops interests and will look for the book in the end."
Aio said that many parents or even kindergarten teachers feel reluctant to tell stories because there is misperception that a storyteller must be able to do all sorts of acts like making animal sounds and magic tricks.
Aio, who participated in providing trauma healing therapy for children after the 2004 Aceh tsunami and earthquake disaster, emphasized that children would not judge whether the story was good or bad; they only wanted to feel welcome and that the storyteller was their friend.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (9 Januari 2008)
