Writing essays about our lives
-Linda Christensen
In this chapter, Linda Christensen discusses the reading and writing assignment of Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, which comes from a TED talk series. It talks about how the single story creates stereotypes. It is often not that these stories are necessarily untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the ONLY story. It is a sad and scary existence for many minority students, especially the African Americans who are suspected of wrong doing even when there is nothing remotely happening to indicate that.
It tells of two black teens, one of who wears his Ninja Turtle hoodie because he wishes to go back to a time, a simpler time, when he was not fearful of being targeted, shot at, and accused of wrong doing merely because he was black, and over six feet tall now. His manly stature was only adding to his feeling of being endangered.
The writing assignment given is the beginning of a new curriculum designed to address the needs of these black students, and all of the students who feel singled out because of some defining feature that turns them into a target.
The work being done here is to have students write about what matters to them, what affects their lives, and to be able to examine the ways in which race and class function in our society today. Using vignettes within their personal essays as evidence from their lives that these stereotypical problems exist. If we give students meaningful assignments that they want to write and that they want to revise, they will be more passionate and/or vested in what they do/write. They expressed interest when someone listened...and someone cared. With the notion that someone cares, and takes the time and interest, it helps them have the confidence and the tools necessary to reclaim their identity.... and they surely don't need to be defined by a single story.
I really liked this chapter mainly because I like the whole idea of writing content that has meaning in your life. If you are not really making a connection, it can be boring or painful. I enjoy writing, but like most of our students, I would much prefer to write about something "real" to me... something poignant in my life, and that would give me ownership and the desire to make it my best... it comes from a true part of who you are, so what better way to inspire our youth to learn more about themselves, than through the art of writing their own stories.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=ted%20talk%20adichie%20single%20story&pc=cosp&ptag=G6C999N1234D010317A316A5D3C6E&form=CONBDF&conlogo=CT3210127
https://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/nwp_au/240
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