I really enjoyed watching Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk "The Danger of a Single Story" because it speaks to a problem that we all face when we think we have knowledge of a people or place. It is conventional for people to categorize and label since that is how we classify information in our memory, but Adichie makes clear the dangers of doing so; namely, we risk representing a place according to only one perspective, only one story. Adichie's point definitely resonates when it comes to the reputation a person has, whether it be at their job, at their school, or amongst people who have only met that person once or twice. She speaks often about power and the ability that portraying one's own story has on one's access to power. The connection to my Instagram project is that by documenting my story and sharing it I have power and control over my story--or, at least as much as I can have over it. My story is still left to people's interpretation, but by telling it I can seek to escape the danger of a single story. This point resonates when I think of my classroom as well because there are students who suffer from the perception a single story can make. We categorize students as English Learners or SpEd, often without thinking that these students are not their labels. As much as these categorizations can assist teachers in supporting these particular students, it is also our responsibility to remind ourselves and these students' peers that they are more than their classifications. Much more.
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May 2016
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