“This chapter will make visible students’ experiences at home- private struggles that students too often carry alone, unspoken and unknown in the school-house”(page 13)
When I have to stand in my long commute train, I tell my self that reading a book is too complicated, so I just use this excuse to think and check social media. In my case, that means Facebook. It’s an excuse to have a quick update on news from home, usually family and politics oriented (I compensate the anger of the second with the joy of the first). This morning an article shared by a former colleague really stood out, because of its connection to the idea of the first chapter from the book “It’s not About Grit”, titled “Unlivable Conditions”. The article was a great translation of the speech given by Chimmamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Fráncfort Book Fair, published under the title “El silencio es un lujo que no podemos darnos” (Silence is a luxury we cannot afford).

Like anything she has ever written or said, what stood out to me in connection to this chapter, was the need to listen to stories. We can continue to write stories like the ones from the book, we can ask women to speak up and denounce injustice, we can point to the power structures and accuse oppression, invite voices to be loud, definite and clear. But if no one is listening, truly listening… what’s the point. She talks about many stories, but specifies on women’s stories not being considered universal so they are not being heard. Women are talking loudly but their stories are being unheard. If we live in a world where women read books written by both, men and women writers, and men read books written only by men writers, as studies have shown, she said, there is no way the void that exists in the imaginary space, is ever going to be filled.