This is not the first time I have seen this video, but Ngozi’s presentation does no less to impress the second time around. I relate to this on a more personal level than most because I, too, was a young writer heavily influenced by the books I had read (and believed that I needed to mimic.) As an English teacher, it is essential to ensure that the texts that students are assigned to read are not presenting a single story. This is a big problem in the traditional Cannon, because Ernest Hemingway, Shakespeare, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Thomas Paine, for example, all present the single story of dead white guys. The single story has become the tool of ages to preserve the status quo. As Ngozi says, “Show a people as one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.”
As teachers, we have to make sure that we are not helping to perpetuate these misconceptions and stereotypes, that we are not harboring in our students the unspoken idea that people different than they are should be pitied and condescended—or that they are the ones who should be pitied and condescended. I understand that we do not have complete control over our curricula, particularly with what texts must be taught. If this cannot be changed right now, we at least have the choice to supplement single stories when we encounter them. When we must teach texts that contain flat, two-dimensional representatives of a people, we can help to subvert these images by supplementing it with multi-dimensional, cross-cultural images from alternative texts. Ngozi, Chimamanda. [TED]. (2009, Oct 7). The Danger of a Single Story. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg&list=PLbRLdW37G3oMquOaC-HeUIt6CWk-FzaGp&index=7
1 Comment
12/8/2015 12:56:36 pm
Great reflection Daydree. I will definitely check out this video too. While I enjoy the likes of Shakespeare, Hemingway and other dead white guys, I agree it does paint a picture of only one way people live and our students need to be exposed to a much more robust collection of readings. Luckily the future students of the great state of California will have you to introduce them to a diverse group of writers.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
mrs. snowEnglish teacher extraordinaire Archives
May 2016
Categories |