Storyteller Helps Children Discover Local Cultural Heroes Through Tales

Grainger County News, Thursday, November 15, 1990

Students at Joppa School are learning all about storytelling during a 10-day program sponsored by the Jubilee Community Arts program designed to help school children understand New Kids on the Block aren't the only ''cultural heroes'' available to them.

Storyteller Debbie Rauch of Sullivan County is working with students at different grade levels to help them develop oral and written communication skills and to use those skills to develop an understanding of the historical and cultural development of their community.

The Cultural Heroes program, as a whole, hopes to use traveling artists in the region's schools to identify community members as role models and to develop pride in the East Tennessee cultural heritage.

Rauch started her program, which will continue at Joppa through November 20, with a performance for the school, telling stories from her family's past.

While at the school, she will help students collect, tell and write stories about events from their families and communities.

The Cultural Heroes grants are sponsored, in part, by the East Tennessee Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo Caption: STORYTELLER DEBBIE RAUCH works with Joppa School sixth grader Nicholas Morgan on how to craft a story. Students at the school are developing their communication skills by collecting, writing and telling stories of their families and communities. Rauch is at Joppa for 10 days under a Jubilee Community Arts program grant.

 

 

 

 

Please note: My former storytelling name from 1989 to 1997 was Debbie Rauch. In May of 1997, I returned to my maiden name of Debbie Dunn. That has been my storytelling name ever since.