Today a good friend of mine sent me this video of Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian writer. In the video she eloquently discusses the importance of learning more than one story about a people, a place, or a culture. To me, she hits the nail on the head. All people need to learn multiple global perspectives. Adichie realizes that there is a major problem with the choices that educators make when sharing topics.
There is a true danger in not knowing multiple sides to a story, or even knowing multiple stories. Our students deserve knowing that there are varying layers to each story. Adichie’s outside looking in viewpoint of American views on Africa are balanced by her own admission that she suffers from knowing on single stories of different peoples in her own life. She shows that we fear what we don’t understand.
I want my kids to grow and learn that every person’s story is unique. There are 6 billion stories on the earth at the moment, not to mention billions that have existed in times past. Each thread is a part of a rich tapestry of experiences. Adichie reminds us that power has a lot to do of what stories are told and when. History is written by the winners of battles and wars. However, all people deserve to have their stories shared, winners and losers.
We need to open our own eyes, we need to open the eyes of our children so that they can see that the world is big, the world is wide, and the world is complicated. Children need to learn to be critical thinkers who take multiple inputs, multiple stories and try to learn what the truth actually is. This is the nature of education. The nature of education is to learn as much as possible, and then try to make sense of these varying ideas.
I wass truck mostly by what Adichie says, “I’ve always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of their dignity.” It is our job to allow our children to learn the “balance of stories” so that they can understand themselves and others in the fullest way possible. We need true critical thinking citizens for the good of the future of the United States and the good of the world.
