We are whatwe tell - Narrative Intelligence - page 117

SAGE: You know Abraham, a story is more than a story...a story has power.
Nu, what is your story? what is in your mind ?
USER: Once I was learning math and I could never understand it.
SAGE: Oy vey... go on, Abraham.
USER: I kept on trying, but no matter how much I studied I could not get it.
SAGE: I see Abraham ... what else do you have to share with this old rabbi?
USER: I have the same problem with English, Hebrew and all other subjects.
SAGE: Well, your situation reminds me of a story. Remember that there is
power on the stories. The Gerer Rabbi said: “Exile contains redemption
within itself, as seed contains the fruit. Right work and real diligence will
bring out the hidden reward. Abraham, do you see the point of this story
related to your own story?
USER: yes, so now I see that I just have to keep on trying no matter what.
SAGE: I hope it was helpful. “Zie gezunt”, be well. May the Lord, Source of Life,
bless you Abraham with peace, and may you find your inner peace. Amen.
In later studies we conducted research with fourth and fifth graders who built
their own meaningful storytellers, such as Mother Nature, Shaquille O'Neil
and the Big Orange Fox (Bers & Cassell 1998). In building a sage, children de-
signed that person to whom they wished they could turn with their problems.
They also played with different notions of self, by creating or imitating the nar-
rative voices they wanted or needed to hear. Children created storytellers as
projections of fears, feelings, interests, and role models.
Using SAGE they were able to design and model abstract structures needed
and used in both programming and storytelling. In order to do so, they created,
manipulated and put together narrative building blocks such as speaker turns,
scripts and communicational actions. This allowed them to explore the con-
versational storytelling genre while observing other people's interactions with
their storytellers.
In later research, we explored how SAGE could be used for therapeutic pur-
poses with chronically ill children who are particularly in need of telling the
stories of their lives. A pilot study was conducted in the Cardiology Unit of the
Children's Hospital in Boston (Bers et al. 1998). Young cardiac patients used
the SAGE environment to tell personal stories and created interactive charac-
ters, such as Mrs. Needle or Mr. Tape, as a way of coping with cardiac illness,
hospitalizations, and invasive medical procedures.