Just off to march for the environment - hope you are too! In answer to someone who asks about collecting oral histories from children: Despite what is usually written, even very young children can remember and talk about the past – some of them, anyway. To some extent it depends on the person. My husband can remember all of his teachers, many of the other students, in primary school for instance and even younger. I cannot name one, though I remember the little girl next door – etc. Similarly, of our children, the daughter can remember things from the past, the son very little. Maybe it’s nurture as well, because I spent a lot of time with the daughter (the elder) chatting about what we did yesterday (before she could talk, but she seemed to remember). And before she was five (I could age them exactly from reading journal index but no time now): having said ‘ewfewent’ for the first time she remarked with scorn ‘I used to call them hey-dee sometimes’ (this barely two); at three ‘when we see Mamma tomorrow, I’m going to tell her we went to the gallery yesterday’; ‘ when I’m quite grown up I’ll remember I had a little possum for a pet’ (four or younger). So yes of course, some adolescents will remember their own history, and the world’s history as they saw it, some won’t. Certainly worth it to collect from those who do. Virginia
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 23:52:13 +0000
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