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I think it's important to distinguish between narrativizing (what I initially thought we meant when we introduced "storytelling" in tonight's discussion) and charisma (which is where the concept had migrated to by the end of the evening).  It's absolutely true that a talented politician can give an impassioned speech or, say, wink at the tv cameras during a vice presidential debate and win the support of an uninformed audience in a way that an affectless policy wonk cannot, rendering factual accuracy completely irrelevant.  But I'm going to go ahead and say that this is actually a bad, scary thing.  What I still think a good education does is enable people to think for themselves, and finding ways to manipulate emotion in order to drive a message home is totally sinister.  Just as oppressive as standing in front of a classroom "spewing facts at people."  But this strategy only alienates those who can sense that they're being manipulated. It "works" with those who aren't aware of it... but that's brainwashing, not education.  See Susan Sontag's "Fascinating Fascism" on the aestheticization of politics, if interested. 

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1975/feb/06/fascinating-fascism/

We're trying to explore different ways of knowing and different ways of communicating,  but just because it's not straight book-learning doesn't have to mean endorsing anti-intellectualism.  And getting rid of Facts doesn't mean getting rid of facts.  If a Fact is something that is true always and everywhere, a fact is something that is true sometimes and somewhere.  These facts shape our reality, have a profound impact on the way our world works right now.  To be useful, responsible co-constructive inquirers, our first duty is to make observations, take a thorough inventory of the facts.  I think all kinds of experimentation can be unfairly perceived as just messing around.  There aren't any rules.  Because you're looking for something and you don't know what it is yet.  And you don't know how to get to where you don't know you're going.  But experimentation, thought experimentation, artistic experimentation, policy experimentation can be rigorous and must, I think, be rigorous if it's to be truly generative.