I was sitting in a cafe the other day when a mom and her two young sons came in for something to eat. The older of the two, about 10, had his head buried in the newest Harry Potter novel.
In fact, he was so fixated on what he was reading that he crashed into the door. His mother held it open for him and asked him what he wanted to eat.
He didn’t respond and instead walked a few steps and sat down at the nearest table without looking up. His mother smiled knowingly and proceeded to order a donut and milk for him. As I am sure his mother does,
I marvel at what J.K. Rowling has conjured in those books to make young people, including one of my daughters, ignore their surroundings while reading about her young magician. I wonder what we can all learn from this old-fashioned type of engagement that will help us better connect with a generation of youngsters who evolve into stimulation junkies by age five.
We can argue philosophically about the amount of exposure children have to television, computers and other digital devices. But while we’re arguing, most are still soaking it in. That places teachers and then managers in the impossible position of having to compete for their attention and we struggle about how to do so.
But then phenomenons like Harry Potter or Twilight come along and capture their attention in a low-tech way. While these are fantasy and we operate in the real world, storytelling will always be one of the best way to get our point across. Whether formally or informally, it has the power to teach values, encourage critical thinking, or even provide instruction.
My good friend, Terrence Garguilo, released a book a couple of years ago entitled Once Upon a Time, which is a great resource for helping anyone to use storytelling to engage people, young or old. While we all complain from time to time about hard it is to engage the emerging generation, I do wonder hard we really try to find better ways to connect with them.