The Power of Story on Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions For a New Era

Harold Johnson's "The Power of Story" is an illuminating read that encourages us to become agentic in the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and the tremendous responsibility we have for the stories we tell others about who they are and can become. In my work in Early Childhood Curriculum Studies, the notion of a story is compelling for people preparing to work with our youngest citizens. We tell children real and imaginary stories of adventure, humor, living within communities, and adversity, but what of the stories we live alongside them? Johnson provokes us to consider how the stories we tell through our beliefs and values, actions, interactions, and ways of being are layered into the stories others (including the children) tell themselves. Johnson's perspective of story brings a new perspective and situatedness to how stories work to shape us, for children, and for humanity.