Mats Rehnman

Storytelling is the basic tool for creating understanding. Without the stories of the other, he/she will be too much a stranger, someone you cannot see as an individual and as someone you can interact with. I believe much of the suspicion against the alien is being raised in communities where you can’t hear the stories of the other. With stories we walk in the shoes of others, understand their perspective. This makes empathy possible.

Together with imitation storytelling has always been the basic tool in education. The student imitated the acts of the teacher, when demonstrating how to build, hunt, weave or whatever was the topic. And by listening to stories they understood the context of the tribe, the work etc. … Whatever is being taught, have benefit from using, when possible, the two basic tools: Imitation and storytelling. This is what our brains are adapted to.

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