peace with ourselves      peace with each other     peace with the environment.

The ideas can be simply absorbed, integrated or adapted into any existing curriculum. These activities will seed the imaginations of children and create new thoughts and peace-building understandings. The chosen story, upon which these activities are based, will magically provide these thinking seeds that will incite the children’s imaginations. Their imaginations will provide the vital first step in the process because once these new understandings and peace-building processes are created in their imaginations then they can action these ideas in their everyday world. The transformative process can begin.

This doesn’t mean we totally ignore the not so good things happening. We must find ways to continually counterbalance the not so good things and restore a reasonable balance and perspective into their lives, in order to develop that necessary momentum required to sustain their energies and commitment.

But not only do these activities present peace-building opportunities and learning they also present teaching and learning strategies that can be utilised across the curriculum and positively support all children’s development.

Storytelling, Peace-building and Literacy Outcomes:

As educators we are aware that storytelling has been a fundamental part of human existence since our early beginnings. Embedded in our simple mental representations of life or our various understandings and interpretations of our inner worlds over the past centuries has been our desire to share any thoughts in a good story. Simply, we define our reality by the stories we construct and share.

In contemporary terms, storytelling, being an integral part of literacy development, can be defined in more complex terms revealing our awareness that is does encompass the ability to use spoken and written language for a variety of purposes in varying contexts. That is, it supports successful literacy acquisition by incorporating the integration of speaking, listening and critical thinking with reading, viewing and writing across all learning areas, that are all essential life skills. The activities explore all these aspects and will positively impact upon every child’s ability to read and to write and operate effectively. These experiences will enable children to critically determine consequences to actions and make informed choices.

Reading, Writing and Sharing of Stories

Recent studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between literacy success and success within the wider world. Educators agree that children's earliest story sharing experiences lay the foundations for this success. As active participants in their acquisition of language children learn it in social contexts while they are interacting with others.

Teaching children to read is significant in developing language but encouraging children to want to read is even more important. Engaging stories such as How Paper and Ink Came Together and Survived to Sing About It can assist in achieving this aim. Reading or hearing quality literature children of any age will develop their speaking and listening skills, their understandings about language structures and connect oral language with the written word. This also motivates them to read independently. Studies confirm that the development of vocabulary and syntax is more advanced in children who are often exposed to a variety of stories. This story especially presents cleverly connected imagery and language structuring that will remain embedded in children’s imaginations. Affirming reading is an enjoyable activity does promote children’s language and vocabulary development. As we answer their questions we are helping develop their attention spans and they learn to concentrate. Reading to children also encourages their creative thinking as their imaginations are stimulated. Broader world issues are also presented and explored in this incredible story therefore both abstract and concrete real world experiences can be linked meaningfully together.

Sharing such a story will allow for many moments for positive interaction with children. Relationships are also strengthened as sharing time will provide a safe place to discuss emotional issues together or address personal needs or concerns while exploring inner feelings that the story might raise. Special sharing times encourage children to express themselves and to even explore conflict resolution possibilities. Self-esteem has also been linked with the ability to read and write.

Either reading this peace-building story aloud to children or listening to the audio version will expose them to:

• positive and caring role models who enjoy listening to, reading and sharing stories

• uniquely structured literature rich in powerful imagery they may not have chosen otherwise and read independently

• a magical plot different from their own experiences or any other story plot

• the English language purposefully constructed in a manner different from that delivered on television or spoken within their own families and communities

• absorbing imagery and songs in which to immerse themselves

• peace-building thinking and actioning

• hope that peace is possible

• a transformative idea being that peace begins with them

Essential to the success of higher level reading and thinking is a child’s ability to relate new information to what is already known and understood by them. A story such as How Paper and Ink Came Together and Survived to Sing About It will allow them to find answers to their own cognitive questions. The consciousness of the child is raised when an another offering higher level language input explores with them issues exposed by a story. It is language that provides the tool for this meaningful examination, reconstruction and growth.

Purposes of Creation Stories

Indigenous cultures have utilised storytelling for centuries to impart the important teaching and learning necessary for survival of their traditions. Similar storytelling processes can be used to impart peace-building understandings to children.

There are amazing creation stories entrenched in the traditions of many cultures and communities throughout the world. The stories have differed considerably from place to place and over time and have been mostly influenced by these various cultures and their  relationships with their natural environment. Creation stories can also explain how individual cultures and the beliefs the people held first evolved. Humanity has sought since time began answers to the unknown questions that taunt and tease imaginations. At the core of nearly every culture is a creation myth that explains how the Earth came into existence. These myths powerful drive each culture’s thinking and behaviours and frames their rules for living. This also impacts upon the way people think about their world and their place in relation to their environment. The numerous geographical boundaries and barriers existing between many cultures has not interrupted the common development of the same basic elements in everyone of them. How Paper and Ink Came Together is such a story and it has been constructed by Hassaun Ali Jones Bey in a manner that reflects his many cultural heritages and diverse life experiences. The author also incorporated these same common elements that creation stories have possessed for generations.

The Dreaming is a term used by Australian Aboriginal peoples to describe the interactions and harmonious balance occurring between the spiritual, natural and moral elements of their  world. It also relates to a time that begins at the creation of the universe to a time before living memory or experience, when creator ancestors and supernatural beings roamed the Earth yet The Dreaming is never-ending, is eternal and inexhaustible. The Dreaming never ceases, it is here and now, continually happening and the most sacred time is now, being present, and not thinking about yesterday or tomorrow. The visible and invisible dimensions are not considered to be divisible. To Aboriginal people the land is not merely dirt or rock but the whole environment with all the elements being linked by The Dreaming.

How Paper and Ink Came Together and Survived to Sing About It is a story that magically transposes us into the Dreamtime.

Peace-building Stories Criteria

Peace-building Stories are stories that can be shared together by adults and children. These stories will incite an interest in the language of peace-building and develop an appreciation for the peace-building elements intrinsic to the creation of peace at all levels in people’s lives. The transformative nature of these stories aids in the development of a peace consciousness and an automatic peace-building way of thinking and actioning. Strong characters in these stories present ideal role models, even heroes with which the children can identify. There are many such characters in How Paper and Ink Came Together and Survived to Sing About It who present positive peace-building understandings, values and actions.

Peace-building stories can be categorised under the following headings but some stories can easily be placed under more than one category. This story explores all there categories revealing the interconnectedness underpinning sustainable peace. It is recognised that peace first begins with ourselves. Our relationship with each other then becomes significant as we work together, interacting in our daily lives in families, as friends or in our local communities. The final layer of course is the international level of interaction. Becoming increasingly more important is our relationship with the environment and our abilities to create sustainable processes in relation to its management.