“So that is how to create a single story: show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become” (Adichie, 2009). This is not something I have ever contemplated as being present in education, but by watching Chimamanda Adichie’s Ted Talk, I know it happens. Only hearing one story about a person or place skews your view without you knowing that it has happened. In education, a small example of how this occurs is from year to year for students with information cards. Each year at my site, teachers fill out information cards about their students to help class placements for the following year. I will read the cards of my incoming class and take note of what is said, but after reading it, I set it aside. I will make my own observations and conclusions about my students. Reading one person’s thoughts on my students’ behaviors, abilities, struggles, triumphs is worth reading, but it is not everything. It is only one story. Students grow and change from year to year. To assume anything before they enter my class is disrespectful.
I never would have known that moving students towards a new culture of learning was a possibility, because I’d only ever heard one story about education. It is possible for students to focus on the process of learning instead of acquiring knowledge in school? Why did this never occur to me? Because I’d only ever heard a single story about teachers in education. Teachers are meant to transfer knowledge to their students, I was taught. Our job is to help them understand how to read, add, multiply, explain and more. Now that I have heard another story about education and how students can learn, I am in awe. Adichie explains,“The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (2009). Now that I have been exposed to a new and different way students can learn in the classroom, I can make an informed decision about what kind of teacher I would like to be. I can also seek out other stories about education to further my understanding. I will no longer blindly teach my students the way I’ve been told is the best way (through traditional schooling involving transferring of knowledge from teacher to student). I can now teach my students the way that I believe is best based on the options I know are available.
It is important to document my own story as an educator too because it will help spread the ideas about a different way of learning in education, or a different story. I have discovered so many different stories about education through my readings, blogs, twitter, instagram and videos. This has opened my eyes to the multitude of ways students can learn in the classroom. Now that I have been exposed to multiple stories about how students learn, I can share these ideas with others to move them away from their own single story. Sharing your story provides a wealth of viewpoints on a single topic that helps avoid further miscommunication when people only hear a single story. I can take the information I have learned, share it with others and lead the way towards a new kind of teaching. Adichie states, “When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story, about any place, we regain a kind of paradise” (2009). Perfectly said. Now that I know there is more than one story about how learning occurs in the classroom, I can reject the idea that traditional teaching is the only way. I can now teach my students in a way that makes sense for them and will help support them. This, in turn, will create a classroom that is a wonderful learning environment, which, to a teacher, is like paradise.
Resources
Adichie, Chimamanda. "The Danger of a Single Story." YouTube. TED Talks, 7 Oct. 2009. Web.
24 July 2015.
<https://youtu.be/D9Ihs241zeg?list=PLbRLdW37G3oMquOaC-HeUIt6CWk-FzaGp>.
I never would have known that moving students towards a new culture of learning was a possibility, because I’d only ever heard one story about education. It is possible for students to focus on the process of learning instead of acquiring knowledge in school? Why did this never occur to me? Because I’d only ever heard a single story about teachers in education. Teachers are meant to transfer knowledge to their students, I was taught. Our job is to help them understand how to read, add, multiply, explain and more. Now that I have heard another story about education and how students can learn, I am in awe. Adichie explains,“The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (2009). Now that I have been exposed to a new and different way students can learn in the classroom, I can make an informed decision about what kind of teacher I would like to be. I can also seek out other stories about education to further my understanding. I will no longer blindly teach my students the way I’ve been told is the best way (through traditional schooling involving transferring of knowledge from teacher to student). I can now teach my students the way that I believe is best based on the options I know are available.
It is important to document my own story as an educator too because it will help spread the ideas about a different way of learning in education, or a different story. I have discovered so many different stories about education through my readings, blogs, twitter, instagram and videos. This has opened my eyes to the multitude of ways students can learn in the classroom. Now that I have been exposed to multiple stories about how students learn, I can share these ideas with others to move them away from their own single story. Sharing your story provides a wealth of viewpoints on a single topic that helps avoid further miscommunication when people only hear a single story. I can take the information I have learned, share it with others and lead the way towards a new kind of teaching. Adichie states, “When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story, about any place, we regain a kind of paradise” (2009). Perfectly said. Now that I know there is more than one story about how learning occurs in the classroom, I can reject the idea that traditional teaching is the only way. I can now teach my students in a way that makes sense for them and will help support them. This, in turn, will create a classroom that is a wonderful learning environment, which, to a teacher, is like paradise.
Resources
Adichie, Chimamanda. "The Danger of a Single Story." YouTube. TED Talks, 7 Oct. 2009. Web.
24 July 2015.
<https://youtu.be/D9Ihs241zeg?list=PLbRLdW37G3oMquOaC-HeUIt6CWk-FzaGp>.