For anyone wondering what the online fuss was about in the middle of March, the 2015 TED weeklong conference convened in Toronto, Canada. Billed as a "platform for ideas worth sharing" and known for its inspiring 15-minute "talks" circulated on YouTube, TED's theme this year was “Truth and Dare.” For those unable to enjoy the talks in person, we’ve created a playlist of TED talks on education that speak occasionally harsh truths while daring our schools and our society to transcend the current, self-imposed boundaries.
“How to escape education’s death valley”
Who: Sir Ken Robinson, speaker and educator
What: Discusses three ways in which a student’s mind can grow, and how the educational “Death Valley” restricts that growth.
Excerpt:
Not far from where I live is a place called Death Valley. Death Valley is the hottest, driest place in America, and nothing grows there. Nothing grows there because it doesn't rain. Hence, Death Valley.
In the winter of 2004, it rained in Death Valley. Seven inches of rain fell over a very short period. And in the spring of 2005, there was a phenomenon. The whole floor of Death Valley was carpeted in flowers for a while.
What it proved is this: that Death Valley isn't dead. It's dormant. Right beneath the surface are these seeds of possibility waiting for the right conditions to come about, and with organic systems, if the conditions are right, life is inevitable. It happens all the time.
You take an area—a school, a district. You change the conditions, give people a different sense of possibility, a different set of expectations, a broader range of opportunities. You cherish and value the relationships between teachers and learners. You offer people the discretion to be creative and to innovate in what they do—and schools that were once bereft spring to life.
“The pursuit of ignorance”
Who: Stuart Firestein, neuroscientist
What: Illustrates how the modern scientific work parallels our need to appreciate the unknown as much as the understood.
Excerpt:
Let's face it, in the age of Google and Wikipedia, the business model of the university and probably secondary schools is simply going to have to change. We just can't sell facts for a living anymore. They're available with a click of the mouse. [...]
So what do we have to do? We have to give our students a taste for the boundaries, for what's outside that circumference, for what's outside the facts, what's just beyond the facts.
“A girl who demanded school”
Who: Kakenya Ntaiya, educator and activist
What: Tells the story of how one young girl from a tribe of African warriors pursued her education in the face of enormous odds—and brought new opportunities to the community she left behind.
Excerpt:
A new dawn is happening in my school. As we speak right now, one hundred twenty-five girls will never be mutilated. One hundred twenty-five girls will not be married when they're 12 years old. One hundred twenty-five girls are creating and achieving their dreams. This is the thing that we are doing, giving them opportunities where they can rise. As we speak right now, women are not being beaten because of the revolutions we've started in our community.
“Teach teachers how to create magic”
Who: Christopher Emdin, science advocate and cofounder of Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S.
What: Explains the trick behind entertaining while teaching—or finding the teachable moments in entertainment
Excerpt:
Now, how do you teach [magic]? You teach it by allowing people to go into those spaces where the magic is happening. [...]
At our teacher education classes at my university, I've started a project where every single student that comes in there sits and watches rap concerts. They watch the way that the rappers move and talk with their hands. They study the way that he walks proudly across that stage. They listen to his metaphors and analogies, and they start learning these little things that if they practice enough becomes the key to magic.
They learn that if you just stare at a student and raise your eyebrow about a quarter of an inch, you don't have to say a word because they know that that means that you want more.
And if we could transform teacher education to focus on teaching teachers how to create that magic, then—poof!—we could make dead classes come alive, we could reignite imaginations, and we can change education.
“Every kid needs a champion”
Who: Rita Pierson, teacher
What: Calls on educators to believe in their students and connect with them on a personal level, as “kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.”
Excerpt:
I gave a quiz, 20 questions. A student missed 18. I put a "+2" on his paper and a big smiley face.
He said, "Ms. Pierson, is this an F?"
I said, "Yes."
He said, "Then why'd you put a smiley face?"
I said, "Because you're on a roll. You got two right. You didn't miss them all." I said, "And when we review this, won't you do better?"
He said, "Yes, ma'am, I can do better."
You see, "-18" sucks all the life out of you. "+2" said, "I ain't all bad."
(Primary image credit to GP3/The Every Day Athlete News)
Additional ISM resources:
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 8 No. 6 Sir Ken Robinson: Education Is Not Fast Food
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 35 No. 6 The 21st Century School: Students and Individualized Instruction
