The Purpose of the Youth, Educators, and Storytellers (YES!) Alliance Special Interest Group is twofold:
To promote youth storytelling through the Youth Strand To encourage educators and other adults to use storytelling with youth as an educational tool in classrooms and in other settings through the Curriculum Links and Storytelling Strategies Strand (CLASS)
'I've been telling stories since second grade. When I started it was a little difficult to speak in front of all those strangers, but it got easier once I began to work on it more. It got to be so much fun! I was able to teach my cousin and some of her friends to story tell and they are all still doing it. Storytelling also gives me confidence and helps me feel more comfortable giving reports in school. All in all storytelling is a wonderful thing that I hope more kids and adults get into.'
Leah, age 11, IL
'Todays world, filled with standards for reading, writing, math and science, has placed an even stronger emphasis on the power of storytelling. Children first experience the rhythm of words with the nursery rhymes and quickly move into fairy tales and fables.'
'Regardless of the discipline area, these [storytelling] skills are basic to comprehending, analyzing, selecting, synthesizing, and creating an individual identity in a world bombarded by images. Above all they create a seedbed for imaginative thinking; a playground for mental, physical, communicative, and experimental journeys that, for centuries, has helped mankind make sense of this wondrous experience called life.'
