Literacy and Single Stories

For this week, we were required to read another article by Kumashiro, as well as listen to a Ted Talk given by a woman named Chimamanda Adichie. In Kumashiro’s article, he writes about the importance of providing a variety of perspectives on certain topics in order for students to broaden their minds and look past a single biased opinion. Chimamanda’s Ted Talk was especially interesting. She spoke about her own life experiences as she taught us about how sharing only one point of view can create future problems in a child’s life. 

Growing up, I went to a Catholic School. I was taught about having faith in Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments, the miracles of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ. I was also taught about the importance of forgiveness and loving your neighbor as you love yourself. My parents made sure that we as a family attended mass each week. I became very involved with the church as I began to altar serve and volunteer at fall suppers. When I was very young, I thought that there was only one religion in the world and that was the Catholic faith. I believed that everything should have been judged with a Catholic perspective. However, as I grew older, I began to become familiar with other faiths. Immigrant children began joining my classes, which prompted our teachers to teach us about other cultures and faiths as well. From these experiences, I started to gain a wider perspective of the world. I discovered that it is important to remember my own faith, but also learn about others, so that I can create connections with other people in modern society today. 

We as future teachers are responsible for developing a child’s education. We must teach them the importance of looking at the world from different perspectives, so that they can learn about society with an empathetic approach. My teachers always told my class that their goal is not to teach us what to think, but how to think, so that we can become our own person. I will forever keep that philosophy in my mind, so that I can teach my future students to also become their own person, with their own diverse views of the world.