Rachel Naomi Remen, is an outstanding doctor, medical reformer, and author. This doctor offers teachers a lesson about the importance of story. She gives us this lesson in a story in the DailyGood website. “In medicine,” she explains, “is often dismissed as ‘anecdotal evidence,’ a sort of second class data.” However, stories are the engines of change, as she elaborates: “One of the most skilled activists is a genius of change, a woman who can enter a room of people who have held opposing positions for years and . . . enable them to work together as colleagues. I asked her how she manages to do this. ‘Simple,’ she said. ‘You just change the story they hold about themselves and each other.'”

We teachers need to listen to Dr. Remen and learn to do this too.