Chinua and Pedagogy

This time I would like to talk about an idea presented in class, but in relation to author’s point of view, because it really called my attention when the teacher said that to be a writer is like to be a teacher. I totally agree with that thought.

Chinua Achebe wrote this novel, not just as another novel with the aim of becoming famous, he wrote it to express his feelings, because he was tired of reading how denigrated his culture was been shown through European literature. Chinua was trying to make the perception of the culture wider; he tried to generate a change, being a shape of consciousness (as professor said) he wanted to open lectors eyes and vision about the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans. And here is where we can find the relation between the teacher and the writer, since a teacher is supposed to open students eyes, furthermore, a teacher is the responsible of showing the reality, and not only one reality, but all the aspects of it.

From my point of view a teacher must be retailer, and ought to be as critical as a writer is, and I took this analogy considering the influence that we may have in our future students. I strongly believe that our aim as teachers must be to generate positive changes in their minds, in order to make them better people for society, and for that we need to make them reflect, we need to make them think beyond their own reality, or maybe beyond the reality that they are exposed to, considering that everything that you see ain’t always what it seems.