“The Danger of a Single Story” (Part Two)
I recently wrote a blog post that focused on a TED Talk by novelist Chimamanda Adichie, who cautioned her audience about “The Danger of a Single Story” - meaning that when we only hear one narrative about a subject, we accept stereotypes as truths. In the United States today, the risk submerging ourselves in the mono-narrative of failing public schools, which some observers have suggested is another manifestation of what Naomi Klein dubbed The Shock Doctrine in her recent book. Klein argues that danger and instability make it possible for those in power to make changes and advance agendas that would otherwise encounter opposition. If our public schools are in crisis, then the public is more likely to embrace dramatic remedies, in the form of traumatic “school turnaround” models and the rapid expansion of charter schools and mayoral control, along with the end