The Role of Story in Shaping Hearts & Minds

I devote a whole chapter in my book ‘Pedagogy andEducation for Life’ to stories and storytelling. In this post, I just want to make three points about story, which cannot be emphasised too many times. I’ve just posted on my ‘Language & Literacy’ blog about some wonderful children’s books, which prompted me to discuss the impact that stories have on children’s lives. I’m not simply speaking of stories in books, but rather the impact of stories of all kinds on how our children see the world. Three quick points:

 

First, stories in whatever form, can shape our hopes, goals, desires and views of the world. So, as teachers and parents, the choices we make - when we share stories and literature with our children, or when we allow them to watch specific television programs and movies - matter!

 

Second, stories can shape our vision and desires for life. Oliver O'Donovan reminded us of Augustine’s statement that a community is “a gathered multitude of rational beings united by agreeing to share the things they love.” Such groups whether friendship groups, teams, classrooms, clubs etc, influence our ‘hearts’ and minds. In essence, through them we can come to have a common “view of the good.” Or, put another way, the things that matter to them and shape their lives.

 

Third, one’s goals, desires, views of the world and varied cultural practices shaped, might be good, bad or inconsequential for our children.

 

My Christian readers will take comfort in knowing that the Bible is central to their lives and that of their children. As such, this can influence and shape goals, desires and views of the world. And of course, my readers who have other faiths will point to other key religious books and teachings that shape who they are. Others will trust in their children to make good choices, and simply try to influence them within the home, through their own values and actions.

 

But note this. Our children spend much of their lives talking and engaging with other children like them, and spending time on varied social media, much of which teachers and parents don’t use. As such, there are many influences through the varied “communities of practice” in which they live day by day. Hence, within the many and varied real and online communities that our children inhabit, there are ideas and ‘loves’ that are not scrutinized by parents or teachers.  

 

Margaret Meek suggested that the writing of others is “infectious”; and this she always hoped for as a writer. The stories that are part of our experience can shape our vision of the good life, give focus to our desires, and direction. And the stories that are part of our experience shape our vision of the good life, giving focus to our desires, and lead us down different paths.

 

Summing up, story can challenge, move us and lead us to reflect on our lives. And the stories of life in whatever form, helps us to deal with all of life’s emotions including love, hate, fear, confidence, chaos, certainty, weakness, strength, success, and failure. Stories are potentially formative, influencing our attitude toward the ultimate object of love—the God of the universe—who has made us for a future kingdom and an everlasting hope and glory.

 

How important is narrative in your classroom and school? Principle 19

Part of what separates humanity from other creatures is that God made us to be story tellers. From the beginning story was to hold a special place as part of human existence. Harold Rosen (in ‘Stories and Meanings’) reminds us that much of human existence is dependent on story, for it helps us to move through the seeming chaos of life towards understanding. In fact, some of life’s greatest insights are shared through story. As well, much human wisdom, knowledge and understanding have been passed down through the ages in the form of stories.

Alasdair MacIntyre in his book ‘After Virtue’ goes further and suggests that ‘man (sic) is in his actions and practices, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal’. We frequently think in narrative, pass on our personal history, envision the future and speak of the present predominantly through story. 

But you might ask, am I claiming that God’s story of redemption is evident in literature? In a sense, I am claiming this. Barth saw it this way, and drew on Calvin’s idea that all of creation is the ‘theatre of God’s glory’. Literature he argued, even that written by the non-believers, can be used by God as part of his general revelation to mankind. Tate suggests that Barth’s use of ‘parable’ is appropriate, as secular stories can point to a meaning beyond the basic narrative. Secular parables might be used by God to speak to particular people in specific contexts. I too believe, that just as God uses the preaching of biblical literature to reveal inexplicable meanings at times for the preacher’s audience, so too, secular parables can be used by God to point to the central narrative of God’s redemptive plans for his creation.

 

Understanding that God can reveal himself through all of creation, including the works of humankind, should free us to embrace secular literature, Indigenous dreamtime stories from varied nations, folk tales and even the anecdotes of life as vehicles for God’s revelation of truth to us. This is not to suggest that all that is written in the name of literature should be freely shared with our children, but it does allow us to avoid the extremes of disengagement with the literature and stories of the world, as well as avoiding total assimilation and acceptance.

 

I wrote a number of years ago in my book ‘Pathways to Literacy’ that literature is not just about the enjoyment of story. I claimed that it is about life, and one's world. As such, literature and stories do much more than entertain, they can act as:

 

• mirrors to enable readers to reflect on life problems and circumstances;

• sources of knowledge;

• sources of ideological challenge;

• a means to peer into the past, and the future;

• vehicles to other places;

• a way to reflect on inner struggles;

• an introduction to the realities of life and death; and

•  a way to raise and discuss varied social issues.

 

Pathways to 'life' and understanding

Chapter 7 of my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life' is devoted to a discussion of ‘Storytelling and Life’, and in it I explore story in detail. I contend that people learn from stories in their varied forms, and frequently share their lives with other students through stories. The Bible is filled with stories and it is a key way in which God communicates with us. God has given us the ability to tell stories and understand them as a key means of his revelation to us. It is through God’s stories that we understand who he is. And as God’s creatures made in his image, the stories we share directly and indirectly in life, can point to or away from God. How do the stories we share at school suggest implied views on the value of humanity, our beliefs, hopes, fears, and knowledge? Is my classroom a place where children tell their stories, and where others listen and gain hope and inspiration to seek God? To what extent are our stories and those we encourage in school life, echoes of the central meta-narrative of the Bible, that is, God’s redemptive plan for his people? For as Tolkien suggested, the gospel of Christ is “the greatest story of them all.”

 

Trinity College Library Dublin

What I’m suggesting is that literature as a form of narrative offers readers endless possibilities for exploration, imagination, learning and challenge, and it serves a key role in school education, particularly in the elementary school years. This role for literature is much broader and less explicitly connected to biblical truth than traditional Bible stories for children. But nonetheless, stories can point to, and illustrate, God’s salvation narrative and his work in our lives. They can also be used by God as part of his general revelation and common grace to us, both to enrich our imagined and hoped for view of the ‘good life’, and in the process, drawing attention to aspects of the human condition. As a result of this, stories can bring into focus truth, beauty and goodness, as well as human virtues that reflect the grace and providence of God. The eighth chapter of my book (“Imagination and Life”), might be helpful if you’d like to explore these issues some more.

 

Related references of relevance to this post

 

Trevor H. Cairney (1990). Other Worlds: The Endless Possibilities of Literature, Portsmouth (NH): Heinemann.

Trevor H. Cairney (1995). Pathways to Literacy, London: Cassell.

Trevor H. Cairney (2018). Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning and Formation, Eugene (OR): Cascade Books.   

 

Literature, the Bible & Redemption

1. The importance of children's literature

Some readers of this blog might know that I also write a blog called "Literacy, families and learning". I've been doing it for 10 years and it aims to reach a broad audience "to provide practical, timely and sound support and advice for parents, teachers and teachers in training". It isn't written with a specifically Christian audience in mind, but if do you read it, I hope that you will see the influence of my Christian faith and worldview. This might be most evident in some of the posts I have written on Key themes in children's literature. These posts intersect with my writing for a Christian blog that I also wrote (while the Director of CASE). The posts concerned Christian Writing for Children (here and here).

Above: J.R.R. Tolkien

In one of the posts I drew on the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and referred to Tolkien's view that the central Bible narrative account of God’s redemptive plan and work, is the central narrative that gives shape to all other narratives. I agree with him that in every story, there is a sense in which there is an echo of the biblical narrative.
J.R.R. Tolkien once said (to C.S. Lewis) that “The Christian story is the greatest story of them all. Because it’s the real story. The historical event that fulfills the tales and shows us what they mean.”

Tolkien also suggested to Lewis one night that "... just as a word is an invention about an object or idea, so a story can be an invention about truth."

At the core of the Bible is Salvation History; with a central narrative tracing both the history of Judaism and Christianity, and God’s redemptive plan for his people. In the beginning God created…and it was good. But sin entered the world, man rebelled against him, and so God placed a curse upon his creation that one day would end in judgement. But God always had a plan for such rebellion; a plan of redemption motivated by love. An amazing gift of grace; his own son sent to die and three days later to be raised from the dead to defeat sin and death, and one day, to usher in a new Heaven and a new Earth. This is God's plan that provides a way for his creation to be redeemed and restored.
 
In my first CASE post on Christian writing for children, I suggested that while there are many legitimate forms of writing for children (I suggested at least five types), I urged Christians to consider writing good fiction for the secular marketplace. One participant in a workshop I ran in 2008 as part of a CASE writers conference, took me at my word. Some years later  Danielle Terceiro, wrote an interesting first novel for readers aged 12-14 years, 'Project Hot Potato' that tried to do this. While the echoes of the gospel are not strong in the book, it was an interesting attempt. In my presentation at the workshop I was arguing for the redemption of children's literature for the sake of the gospel, and suggested 5 possible responses and she attempted Type 5 where biblical links or parallels are at the thematic level. My aim at the workshop was to encourage Christians to write good publishable narratives for children that had biblical themes at their very foundation, and an absence of bad language, moral failures and sexually promiscuity and so on.
 
2. The place of God's redemptive plan for creation in literature

But in this post I want to remind readers that much literature is already suitable for parents to use as an extension of the biblical education of their children. While I'm not suggesting that literature can be a replacement for the Bible as the key text for life, what I am suggesting is that the gospel inhabits literature in stories that echo the central redemption narrative of the Bible. 

I suggest in chapter 7 of my new book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life', that to be human is to seek to understand our purpose in life. To live, is "to be immersed within an intertextual cacophony of stories that shape and influence the things we desire. From these stories, we read various representations of the future, and alternative visions of what Aristotle first called 'human flourishing'." In a sense, we are 'persuaded', 'convinced' or, as James Smith suggests, perhaps even 'lured', by these pictures and visions of the future.


Stories are always more than just disconnected and isolated accounts; they typically have a relationship to other larger metanarratives. Christian Smith in 'Moral, Believing Animals' suggested that narratives “seek to convey the significance and meaning of events by situating their interaction with or influence on other events and actions in a single, interrelated account.” 

We are shaped, at least in part, by the stories we absorb, give expression to, and help create. James K. A. Smith suggests this is no simple cognitive process (James Smith, 'Desiring the Kingdom', p.41). Rather, we are embodied creatures who absorb the stories of life and engage in rituals and cultural practices that shape our desires and our vision of the good life. This argument draws on Charles Taylor’s concept of the “social imaginary” in 'Modern Social Imaginaries'. This is discussed briefly in chapter 6 of my book. Taylor argues that societies are given direction by an imagined and hoped-for view of the world. This is not expressed simply in “theoretical terms, but is carried in images, stories and legends.” Humans are not given their major focus and direction simply by reasoning, but also through the imagination.

 
The stories that are part of our experience thus shape our vision of the good life, give focus to our desires, and direction to our lives. In exploring the relationship between love and community, Oliver O’Donovan reminds us of Augustine’s statement that a community is “a gathered multitude of rational beings united by agreeing to share the things they love.” ('Common Objects of Love', 20–24).  Stanley Hauerwas, in 'The Hauerwas Reader' suggested that in essence, a group of people come to see a common “view of the good,” and are hence capable of common action, cultural practices, and identity.

Classroom life is full of stories in varied forms, hence their importance.

3. So how do we make better use of literature?

In another book of mine ('Pathways to Literacy', Cairney 1995, p.77-78) which I wrote some time ago for university students and teachers, I suggested that literature can act as:

• a mirror to enable readers to reflect on life problems and circumstances
• a source of knowledge
• a source of ideological challenge
• a means to peer into the past, and the future
• a vehicle to other places
• a means to reflect on inner struggles
• an introduction to the realities of life and death
• a vehicle for the raising and discussion of social issues

I'm pushing the above claims one step further in 'Pedagogy and Education for Life'. My point is simple. For many books, there are links or parallels at the thematic level, to the biblical redemption narrative. These stories demonstrate or echo biblical teaching. For example, salvation narratives, stories of redemption and restoration, parallels to biblical narratives or even biblical parables. Other less helpful books distort these biblical themes and require comment and critique. Such stories can be read at one level simply as nice tales, but at another level the key themes that parallel biblical themes can be discussed with children. We see this often in the way some authors treat the Christmas story and manage to write out the major salvation narrative. In many cases, the authors are not Christians, but Christian teaching may have indirectly influenced their writing. Many children's stories offer knowledge of events and life situations, that for the Christian would be seen as:

• affirming that God is in control of his world and is unfolding his purposes for it;
  
• acting as a mirror allowing the reader to reflect on life and their future in the light of biblical teaching;
  
• leading us to consider aspects of the human condition (life and death, fear, loneliness, pain, loss, frailty, brokenness etc) that once again relate to biblical wisdom and teaching;
  
• pointing to the central redemption narrative of the Bible.

Alternatively, literature can offer perspectives that Christians would see are at odds with biblical teaching and require comment. This type of critical reading of literature 'against the grain', is a vital skill for children to learn, so that as independent readers they will be better able to read books, view movies, listen to songs and read texts of all kinds with a biblical lens. Biblical engagement with literature of this type can begin very early (albeit in modest ways!).

4. An example - Teaching our children about death, human frailty and judgement

The topic of death is not a very popular one for parents. Many parents make the mistake of trying to hide the reality of death from their children, with the result that when their children do encounter it they may have difficulty coping. At this point I should confess to telling my eldest daughter (when she was about 3 years old), that our pet yellow budgerigar ("Mr Hooper") had got out of the cage and flown away. In fact, he had died. As non-Christian parents at the time, my wife and I weren't ready to deal with the topic so we simply lied about the bird's death (sorry Nicole!).

While there is little point in deliberately raising death prematurely for the child before they have the emotional maturity to deal with it, it's hard to artificially put a time frame on when it's a good time to speak of death. While thankfully few children will have to deal with death and dying at too young an age, some will, and of course we have no way of knowing when,   and if this might be the case. Furthermore, from an early age they will be on the 'edges' of conversations and discussions that will give them their first hints that this life is not permanent for any living creature. An awareness of death may emerge very early with the death of a family member, or more commonly, through the death of an animal (typically a pet like Mr Hooper). However, more often the child's first awareness that all living things will one day die, might be through a book or a film, DVD or television program. As the child grows older, the chance of some first-hand experience of death will increase. By the teenage years a close experience with the death of a friend or loved one will be more common, and might well come in tragic circumstances.

That's where literature (and film of course) can help parents, in particular, to discuss the reality of death with their children. Books that address death can be read with children and by children themselves as a source of insight, comfort and emotional growth. Once again, I stress that this isn't a replacement for the Bible's discussion of death, and the fact that Jesus rescues us from any fear of death. But literature is a complement to our discussion of the Bible's teaching about death. At this point, I also want to stress that I am not deliberately ignoring classic works of Christian fiction that are more allegorical in their approach such as Bunyan's "The Pilgrims Progress", The Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis, or R.C. Sproule's, The Prince's Poison Cup. This genre has a different place in our literary traditions that I won't address in this already long post.

Let me offer a few examples of how some books raise the theme of death and dying.

5. Some books that deal with death

a) Traditional fantasy and fairy tales

Fantasy has always been a common first introduction to human frailty and death. Fairy tales from many different cultural traditions have not been afraid of death as a theme. Traditional versions of 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'The Three Pigs', 'Jack and Beanstalk', 'The Gingerbread Man', 'The Little Match Girl' and many other tales, all deal with death in graphic detail. However, today it is common for such tales to be sanitised and death expunged or pushed into the background of the narrative. But traditional fairy tales, myths and legends still offer a rich array of stories that deal with death. In contemporary literature there are also many good examples of books that deal with this important theme.

b) Some books for younger readers (0-6 years of age)

I’ll always love you, Hans Wilhelm – a delightful picture book that tells of the death of a little boy’s dog called Elfie and the impact of the death on him. This would be appropriate for children aged 3-7 years. There is so much to talk about in this story of devotion and loss. Be warned, children ask the most challenging questions about stories, e.g. "Do dogs go to heaven?"

Granpa by John Burningham - This moving book provides provides an insight into death through simple words and pictures of the relationship between a girl and her grandfather and the impact of his death. Some struggle with the staccato nature of the text (that mirrors the at times disconnected nature of child/adult interaction), but this is a wonderful book! The story shows how their relationship changes over time from the child being dependent on the adult, to Granpa beginning to show the signs of the slow creep from life to death. From dependence to 'independence' but one day when he dies, life goes on.  

Love You Forever, by Robert N. Munsch -- this book tells of the cycle of life as a child grows to be a man and a mother grows to be an old lady; and of course of the relationship between a boy and his mother as they both grow old. Some find it a little unusual, but it is an intriguing treatment of the topic from a well known children's author.

Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, by Tomie de Paola - Four-year-old Tommy enjoys his relationship with both his grandmother and great-grandmother, but eventually learns to face up to their inevitable death.




c) Primary Readers (7-12 years of age)

Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White – It’s hard to go past this classic tale of survival, hope, life and death. Even if it has been seen first on DVD it is worth reading with your children. In his masterly tale E.B. White shows through Wilbur (the pig), Fern (the little girl) and Charlotte (the spider) how death is part of life; and yet, how death is not the end. Life goes on.



Number the stars, Lois Lowry – This wonderful book tells of the escape of a Danish Jewish family by boat from the Nazis in World War II. It is a novel that touches on numerous themes such as human cruelty, life, death and survival.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr - this book is based on the true story of an 11-year-old Japanese girl diagnosed with leukaemia as a consequence of the bombing of Hiroshima. Sadako Sasaki was just 2 when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The author does not hide the horrors of death providing vivid descriptions of her pain, weakness, sadness, and loneliness. The book also shows the impact on a family of the tragic death of a child. For the Christian parent there is also the opportunity to talk about pain, suffering and judgement.



d) Teenagers

Death of a Princess, by Susan Geason - When the Pharaoh's beautiful eleven-year-old daughter, Isis, dies under suspicious circumstances, the beautician becomes the prime suspect! This mystery is set in Ancient Egypt during the reign of the mighty Ramesses II. For the older reader there is a lot to get your teeth into here, particularly the contrast of the stories treatment of death and the Bible's

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson - This brilliant book won the Newbery Medal in 1978. It is the story of two lonely children who create a magical forest kingdom. Paterson drew inspiration for the novel from the death of a friend of her son, who was struck by lightning at a beach. It is the story of fifth grader Jesse Aarons, who befriends his new neighbour Leslie Burke after losing a race to her at school. This touching story ends in tragedy.

6. Some final comments

What I've tried to show in this post is to try to demonstrate in 'Pedagogy and Education for Life', particularly in chapter 7, 'Storytelling and life'. If 'education is the whole of life of a community and the experience of its members learning to live this life from a specific standpoint or end goal', then we need to understand that every story, every book, offers insight into the greatest story ever told. 
  

The purpose of the post is not to encourage Christian parents or teachers to put the Bible to one side and present the gospel according to literature. Rather, the purpose is to highlight how literature has much to offer in terms of the discussion of biblical themes as part of narrative encounters in books and even film. Nor am I suggesting that parents and teachers ruin the reading of literature by dissecting books to such an extent that children are not given the opportunity to simply enjoy the narrative themselves. And I'm definitely not saying that we should all become bibliotherapists, although some psychologists use some of the books I've mentioned as part of their clinical work. 

But I do want to stress that literature offers many possibilities for rich discussions with our children that have significance for their developing faith in Christ.

AN UPDATE - Availability of 'Pedagogy, Education and Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning, and Formation'

My book is now be widely available throughout the English Speaking world now. Major sites like Amazon have it in all three forms, paperback, hard cover and Kindle version. Let me know if you have availability issues. There shouldn't be problems. The Wipf & Stock model allows for copies to be printed on demand and delivered in very short timeframes (days not weeks).

Visit the Wipf & Stock site HERE if you'd like review copies. Let me know if you have problems.

The Power of Story

Above: My father told constant stories about life

As an adult, I can never remember being read to as a child. Books were not a big part of our family life. But as I grew older, and particularly when I trained to become a teacher, I began to appreciate the importance of literature in the lives of the young. Later, as an academic, I began to research story and I became a passionate advocate for children's literature. I would often say in talks about children's literature that I hadn't lived in a home rich in literature. But over time, I began to realize that while books were not read to me as a child, and literature had not been prominent in my early life, that story DID play a large part in my childhood. How could this be so?

First, because my home was filled with music, song and my father's personal anecdotes of life in Scotland. My father's stories often focused on family hardship, and later in Australia, the struggles of an immigrant family and a lifetime of battles as a trade union leader against the power of big business. Both my parents were also musicians and entertainers, and my mother and sister were both gifted singers. Music, in a sense, was another form of storytelling that also filled our home. Second, my grandfather, with whom I spent all my school holidays, loved literature, particularly poetry, and was constantly quoting and reciting it. He would also constantly quote the Bible as part of daily life.

Above: A brother is introducing his sister to the power of story

What I was to realize many years later, was that story had indeed been central to my life. Not from books, but as oral stories in varied forms. Story in all of its forms has the power to challenge, to move us emotionally, and to cause us to reflect on life in all its dimensions. It also has the potential to move us to seek hope as we deal with all of life as we experience life's emotions, including love, hate, fear, confidence, chaos, uncertainty, weakness, strength, success, and failure. Story is an important influence on what we come to love and desire, it follows that it is potentially formative for our attitude toward the ultimate object of love—the God of the universe—who the Bible teaches has made us for a future kingdom and an everlasting hope and glory centred on him.

In my book 'Pedagogy and Education for Life', I devote a chapter to storytelling and in it write:

The significance of story for teaching should be obvious. It operates at multiple levels in the life of the school. At one level, students learn about the world through story. But at a deeper level they begin to imagine their own futures, their deepest desires, and the good life which they seek. As well, story is experienced in many forms: written, spoken, sung, viewed, heard, and experienced. In our world, we can be confronted and moved by books, advertising, movies, and music. This of course occurs in the 'everydayness' of life, whether at school, work, home, or in the world at large.

James K. A. Smith in his book 'Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation', argues that we are embodied creatures who absorb the stories of life, and engage in rituals and cultural practices that shape our desires and our vision of the good life. The stories that are part of our experience shape our vision of the good life, give focus to our desires, and direction to our lives.

But we don't just enjoy and absorb stories, we create them and share them as a central part of life. As Alasdair MacIntyre, suggests in his book 'After Virtue' we are storytelling creatures:

“Man [sic] is in his actions and practices, as well as in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal.”

Humans frequently think in narrative, pass on personal histories, envision the future and speak of the present often through story. But there's more! Our stories have a relationship to the stories of other people, and also the central salvation narrative of the Bible. MacIntyre suggests in 'Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry' that 'The story of oneself is embedded in the history of the world, an overall narrative within which all other narratives find their place'. J.R. Tolkien suggested something similar when he challenged C.S. Lewis to consider the Christian faith.

It has become obvious to me over time, that my personal life story has a relationship to all other stories that I have experienced in life. This too is the experience of our children. Teachers need to understand this, for it has significant consequences for the view of the world they are forming each day, and even more important than this, their view of their potential future. For much of the life of school, teachers have little connection to the stories that are shaping the lives of our young people. One of the great challenges that we face is how to address this disconnection between adults and the private narrative worlds of our students.

Being participants in the storied lives that our children live each day, is a major challenge for parents and teachers. In 'Pedagogy and Education for Life' I argue that we need to strive to help our children connect their lives to the Bible's central narrative. That is:

In the beginning, God created . . . and it was good. But sin entered the world, man rebelled against Him, and so God placed a curse upon his creation that one day would end in judgment. But God always had a plan to respond to such rebellion, a plan of redemption motivated by love, an amazing gift and act of grace: sending his own Son to die, and then three days later to be raised from the dead to defeat sin and death, and one day to return to judge the living and the dead. This is how the Bible outlines God's plan to provide a way for his creation to be restored to a rightful relationship with him.

Stories can be used by God as part of his general revelation and common grace to us, both to enrich our imagined and hoped-for view of the good life, and in the process draw attention to aspects of the human condition.

To be human is to understand our God-given desire to know our purpose in life and to seek fulfillment in the “hoped for,” the ultimate quest of each life. In life, we are immersed within an intertextual cacophony of stories that shape and influence the things we desire. From these stories, we read various representations of the future, and alternative visions of what Aristotle first called 'human flourishing. (Cairney, In press, 'Pedagogy and Education for Life').

Finally, stories can bring into focus truth, beauty, and goodness, as well as human virtues that reflect the grace and providence of God. Teachers need to constantly ask themselves, how do I share and position classroom life in such a way, that ultimately, the stories that our students hear, share and are influenced by, have a connection to the central narrative of the Gospel of Christ?

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