Two years ago at an ELL professional development I heard this TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie and I found myself guilty of lumping people together by only knowing a “single story.” This week as we welcomed back to school, I had the opportunity to hear this talk again and once again I was reminded of the dangers of lumping people together with single story. It also reminded me that when I had stayed with a host family in London, England in the summer of 1992 after about a week, the host mom said to me, “You are nothing like Roseanne! Thank goodness!” I was shocked to compared with the comedian. I was a pretty shy, quiet American and Roseanne was anything but shy and quiet. My host mom had clumped all Americans into the Roseanne Category. I was glad that she was willing to be a host mom even though her opinion of Americans was pretty low before she met me and my friend who also stayed with us.
Take some time and enjoy!