So, while I have been studying for my final (which is taking place tomorrow, wish me luck!), I came across this website thanks to another student in my class.
http://www.ted.com/
TED is a non-profit organization that focuses on bringing together and spreading original and innovative ideas. They hold conferences where these ideas can be spoken, heard, and hopefully acted upon. On the website, TED provides the videos of the bests talks and performances for free so anyone can see them. Their mission, more than anything else is to spread ideas (open access here we come!).
I think this website is AMAZING. The topics TED videos cover spread from technology to literature to entertainment, and help me feel more connected to our hard-to-keep-up-with society.
Today I watched this video below, which talks about the danger of isolated experience, or as Chimamanda Adichie says "the danger of a single story."
I really appreciate this video, especially as an English education major at BYU. This video made me think about the BYU English curriculum. I am required to take three American literature courses, two British Literary courses, and one Shakespeare coarse. The rest of my English classes are electives such as Film and Literature. There are no requirements in my major for comparative literature, or international literature. As an education major I am only required to take one multicultural education class. If I wanted to, I could probably get through my college career without ever reading a book by an author from Africa or Asia.
Is that right? I mean, one can argue that recent American literature includes many other cultures, but they are still American. I was in an international program in High School, and I have just realized that I had more international exposure in the 10th grade alone than I have in all of my academic career at BYU. Is BYU producing English majors whose international interests span only to Britain and the East coast? Why don't we have more required international literature classes? Why have I never even heard of Chimamanda Adichie?
Wouldn't I make a better teacher if I understood the literature of other cultures beyond just one class? Shouldn't I have more than one class worth of exposure to multicultural learning if the students I am going to teach are going to be from other cultures themselves?
New Goal: Don't just read the classics, read everything. I want more than one story.
I love the power of books to transport us into a different "story" than our own limited experience provides. One of my favorite quotes is from Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird: You never really know a person until you walk around in his shoes. Scout remembers that piece of advice from her father as she accompanies Boo Radley up to his front porch on the night she and Jem were attacked after the school pagent. She admitted just standing on the Radley front porch was enough. But she realized the single story her friends and relatives had told her about Boo wasn't the truth. She realized that he displayed a rare compassion, a rare love and ability to care for his neighbors that most people didn't notice, including his own father.
ReplyDeleteA single story is never enough to understand and emphathize with a fellow human being, a culture or a nation.
I was really impressed when my English 292 Professor required us to read Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart.' I was also required to read it in high school. If you haven't read it, and you're interested in reading more in the cultural realm- I would highly recommend it. I also read 'Harmless People' by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas for an Anthropology class. Although it isn't from an African's perspective, I feel that she does great justice to their culture. :)
ReplyDeleteWaita blog about meaningful topics.