We’re just through the first morning and I already have enough fodder for a year’s worth of blog posts. In an effort to stay chronological, however, let me share this from the opening session:
The speaker, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, shared her perspective on the danger of a single story- the ways that a single version of who someone is, when retold again and again about a person or a group of people, becomes the “truth” that others adopt about who those people are. While the implications of her words are obviously global, she got me to thinking about my little corner of the world and the work there. What assumptions do we make about the students in our communities based on their names, their addresses, their cold-weather-dress choices? We get terribly peeved when those outside of New England make assumptions about us based on those things, but what a struggle it is to push back against the single stories we hear of our students and our schools. I wonder about our work at ANE and the ways that we, hopefully, arm our students with an awareness of this and the tools to dismantle those stories when they emerge in our awareness.
Something to ponder.
I know, though,that the things you’re really wondering are “How’s the hotel?” and “What are you going to eat?”
So the answers are here and, so far, only a greek salad from the galleria across the street. I have high hopes for dinner, however.
The Critical Skills Classroom 