Stories and Role Models
One of my favourite parts of being a primary school teacher is reading stories to the class. Stories are so much fun. The children get really engaged with them. They love to learn about the characters, what adventures they go on and what mysterious lands they might visit. They are great for opening up the imaginations of the children. Plus they can introduce them to great story ideas and interesting vocabulary. On top of that, picture books have beautiful drawings that can add even more atmosphere to a story. Even I can remember some of my books from my childhood…. and that’s quite a few years ago!
There are some lovely stories for quieter children that I would like to highlight. Stories can be fantastic at talking to us about ourselves. We can feel comfort from stories of characters who live lives that we can relate to. Not all children want to invade foreign lands and fight scary monsters to save the princess. So it’s important that children who like to retreat into their own rich inner world can have characters that like to do the same. Or children who are on the quieter side, can read about characters who live that way as well…. and flourish.
A couple of books I’ve read recently are “I Go Quiet” by David Ouimet and “Quiet Girl In A Noisy World” by Debbie Tung. Introverted children might benefit from a brief description of what their needs are, so that they can understand their behaviours. But there is nothing like immersing yourself in a story to really feel something; to really be impacted. So beautiful stories like the two I’ve mentioned, are valuable for quieter children who worry there is something wrong with them. To quote Neil Gaiman, “I wish these stories had been around when I was a child. I would have not felt quite so alone.”
This can be a tool in helping introverted reframe how they look at themselves. Self-acceptance is vital to confidence. Having that inner acceptance is more important than dressing up to feel empowered or saying the right things to appear confident. Having the confidence to be yourself is truly valuable to living an authentic life.
So let’s celebrate how awesome introverts can be and let’s have more stories about those of us who are on the quieter side of life.