My last post was a Storify project I created to tell my story. My question is now: why is this important? The video below is a description of the danger of a single story. Essentially, this is important because when we only have one story that we hear or many stories that all describe similar things, it is hard for us to understand how to empathize with others. It is easy for us to compare ourselves and our lives to that story. This is one of the reasons that a fixed mindset about math exists. The only story that we hear about math is that "you get it or you don't." The people who struggle with math and eventually find a way to approach the subject that makes sense for them don't often share their story. Without hearing the stories of many people, we as educators have misconceptions about stereotypes and struggle to understand where our students are coming from. We are unable to put ourselves in their shoes, and that makes it impossible to find out how they are approaching the material we are learning and help them to develop *their* understanding. Instead we impose our ways of thinking on them without understanding that their views and approaches are just as valid as our own.