Swapping Stories, Making Connections

Photo by Sandy Schaeffer

Judy Thibault Klevins' storytelling project builds understanding across the generations.

Virginia member and arts education consultant Judy Thibault Klevins remembers the moment she discovered the potential of exchanging personal experiences through storytelling. "I was teaching an acting exercise to a class of high school drama students," she says. "We were practicing telling someone else's story in the first person and one young man was telling the story of a girl who had lost a grandparent."

Klevins describes how the girl ran out of the room crying, moved by the memory of the grandmother she loved. "When I saw the understanding in the boy's reaction, I realized that he respected her and had connected to her experience--and that the moment had brought the class closer together," says Klevins. "I thought, if storytelling can bridge the differences in this classroom, why can't it cross generations?"

From this enlightening teachable moment emerged the concept for Swapping Stories, a project Klevins created three years ago to bring seniors and youngsters together in the Arlington, Virginia, school district.

Swapping Stories participants first improve their inter-viewing, listening, and storytelling skills in separate workshops before meeting with their partners in a local senior center. Following the "swapping" session, during which senior and child respond to a variety of interview questions, participants tell their partner's story as if it happened to them. "It's about establishing ways to connect and finding commonalities," says Klevins.

The program, initiated in 2001 at Barrett Elementary School with seniors from the Culpepper Garden Senior Recreation Center, has since expanded to four additional projects that reach middle school students, German exchange students, and retired teachers.

"It's great for retired teachers, because they can come in and work with students again, without it taking over their whole life," Klevins remarks. "It's especially exciting because we as teachers have a penchant for continued learning. We have so many skills for organizing, constantly being creative, and making up projects. And with Swapping Stories, there are no grades and no report cards."

Klevins, 58, taught language and theatre arts in Arlington for 33 years before retiring in 2000 and launching Swapping Stories with the help of a local Arlington Early Retirement Project and the Bicentennial Taskforce of Arlington. The program's participants say it enables seniors and children to bridge cultural and generational gaps, collect oral histories, and develop empathy and communication skills.

"The biggest high is watching the kids when they see the seniors tell their stories," insists Klevins. "It's like watching a kid watch fireworks." After participating in the program, says Klevins, one student told a television crew, "'I didn't know how important my story was until my partner told it to the group. It made me feel lucky to be alive.' To hear a child say this helped me realize how profound the process is."

Klevins encourages other retired members to follow their interests and see what resources are offered in their community for new projects. "I never thought I could do any of this, but I kept on trying. Every problem we solve leads to a success. You just have to go for it."

To learn more about Swapping Stories, check out the program Web site (www.swappingstories.org) or contact Klevins (klevins@erols.com).

--Tamara Zakim