In Anne Hallward’s Ted Talk, How telling our silenced stories can change the world, Hallward uses the experiences of both herself and others to describe how shame can be a potentially life threatening and debilitating emotion. She also explains how people have found words that are emotionally charged and instead of speaking about those words and why they’re important, we choose to ignore and move past, and because of this we lose a chance at understanding and learning more.
Throughout my four years in high school I have noticed that there are some things we as a collective group of people choose not to talk about. Freshman year in particular, there was a required course that all freshman had to take in order to graduate. This course was World Religions. In her Ted Talk, Hallward explains that, “.. on a larger cultural level that means things like death and dying, sexuality, racism, mental illness. And why don’t we talk about these things? That’s because they all have an emotional charge.” (0:15) Hallwards claim is correct and I know that from my own experience in high school within World Religions. This course was something that nobody had any idea what to expect from, and sitting there in class the feeling that everyone was nervous and anxious was very apparent. The word religion already came with certain connotations and charges that were different for each and every person and for some they didn’t care but everyone had some sort of feeling going into the course. The emotional charge of that one word was enough to create this anxious feeling amongst the class before we even knew what we would be taught. It turns out, our teacher was incredible about keeping everyone’s pre conceived notions, biases, and beliefs, outside of the classroom. We learned the basics about each five major religions. We gained knowledge about what they believed in and also why. In many ways, I look back on this required freshman course and I think it was not only the most influential but also the best preparation course that was offered at my high school.
Hallward hits the nail on the head with her analysis of how the world we live in has shaped us to not speak of those emotionally charged words, and she moves on to explain different instances in which facing those words head on has head a positive affect. I can connect with my own experience in World Religions where my class as a collective unit decided that it was okay for everyone to have their own opinion but it was our job to make sure we understand where everyone was coming from and why.
Amy Amoroso
Sounds like a great class. You say, “[M]y class as a collective unit decided that it was okay for everyone to have their own opinion but it was our job to make sure we understand where everyone was coming from and why.” This is part of being educated, and it pays off when people are educated, because (in most instances) we have a better, more peaceful world.