A big part of the law professor’s job involves being able to think on your feet, whether it be in a faculty workshop or in front of a first-year class using the socratic method. Over the years, I’ve gotten better at both of those formats, though I still have a lot to learn. In my nearly five years of parenting, though, I have not really improved in the vital area of nighttime improvisational story telling. This is despite daily practice and genuine effort. I do try to substitute children’s books, which I consider a kind of bedtime story prostethtic for people like me, who have trouble coming up with their own. But, even after I’ve read them a few books, my kids continue to demand an improvised story every night after the lights go out, often with baroque plots whose broad outlines they dictate. As I speak the stories, I am embarrassed by their lameness and by my poor use of language, both of which are only highlighted by comparison with the children’s books I just finished reading. Unlike my colleague, Mike Dorf, I would never dream of posting mine online as podcasts. In fact I hope my kids forget them and at some point stop asking me to tell them. My story telling woes may be due to exhaustion due to chronic sleep deprivation associated with fatherhood, but I fear they reflect some deeper mental defect. I haven’t settled on just what kind or whether it is progressive.
Posted by Eduardo Penalver on September 1, 2011 at 02:37 PM
Comments
I like that. Its like the Dora the Explorer theory of nighttime story-telling.
Posted by: Eduardo Penalver | Sep 2, 2011 10:05:24 AM
I have found that using the same basic story arc helps. Characters meet. They like each other and/or do something they enjoy. Something terrible/exciting/goofy happens. They learn a lesson. The end. Now that I think about it, I think that’s pretty close to how I organize my law review articles, too. But my daughter’s smile is a way better reward.
Posted by: Heidi Anderson | Sep 2, 2011 9:23:23 AM
Hey Eduardo–cut yourself some slack. the stories don’t have to be good and they certainly don’t have to follow a perfect (or even noticeable) narrative arc. kids love storytelling.
Posted by: rebecca bratspies | Sep 2, 2011 6:23:10 AM
My three sons generally ask for stories from my childhood. On occasion, the youngest, who is five, will sometimes ask for a story about something that never happened, and I will be obliged to make something up. These are not my finest moments, either.
Posted by: Jake Linford | Sep 1, 2011 2:41:55 PM