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Years ago, I wrote a post that continues to be very popular. It’s called The Power of Stories. It’s worth a look, and has lots of good links.

Here’s an excerpt:

During my nineteen-year community organizing career, our primary strategy was to learn people’s stories, have them share those stories with others, and then help them develop a new interpretation of those stories. This new interpretation then was the engine that would propel themselves to action. It’s similar to a challenge we face in the classroom—we need to help students connect our lesson content to their background knowledge and then attach new understandings and learnings to it.

Of course, the same thing can hold true in the “public relationships” we develop with students and their families.

Former President Obama provided an excellent summary of the importance of these stories in the context of making social change:

Here’s his entire talk:

 

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change.