I watched “The Danger of
a Single Story.” In this ted talk
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses the importance of not stereotyping. She says when you use stereotypes you are not
representing all people and they are incomplete stories of individuals. When someone reads a novel, or children’s book,
or even watches the news, we are often given one view of a story and we assume
all the people of that nationality are the same based on what we have read or
watched. When we are shown people as one
thing over and over, that is what they become.
What resonated with me the most is the beginning of the video she tells
her story about writing a book that matched the books she read as a child. Children need to be exposed to various types
of stories where characters are diverse so that we do not give them misconceptions.
There are many more opportunities for this now.
There are many stories that teachers can read where their characters can
provide the learning opportunity for inclusion and various points of view. I will now have this in the back of my mind
when choosing books to read to my children.
