Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge

Kiran Bir Sethi - Helping children take charge

Children are often underestimated for their ability to think for themselves, both in and outside of school. Kiran Bir Sethi contradicts these stereotypes with her Riverside School experiment. She says that happiness and passion are contagious, and that I something I agree with. When anyone, be they young or old, is passionate and happy about what they do, they infect you with something Sethi calls the I Can bug.

Now going back to the Riverside School experiment. This school provided a new school environment in India, where the line is blurred between school and the real world. This allows the kids to be more aware of current situations, and the understanding these kids possess empowers them with the I Can bug. What I found extremely inspirational was the videos Kiran Bir Sethi showed of her students going out into the city and evangelizing their beliefs on child labor laws. Their I Can bug turned into We Can as they continued to infect city after city.

This connects so much to us making a difference in the world, which we've talked so much about in class. This may have just been a few students in India, but their perseverance to be heard has infected thousands of schools in India with the I Can bug as well. It makes me feel like we can do the same if we really put our minds to it.

Kiran Bir Sethi herself seems like such a believer. She knew that kids didn't have much power at all in India, yet she pursued this idea anyway. The way she speaks during her talk shows how proud she is of her students, because they achieved this much on their own. This independence is so inspiring, and it was possible because Sethi enabled her students to become inspired and to inspire others.

In the end, what matters is the importance of empowering students to feel like they can make a difference in the world. I feel like our class is already trying their best to show how intellectual we can be through our fishbowls, wikipapers, and even our TED blogs. Children are reaching a whole new level in education and infecting the world with our ideas, and Kiran Bir Sethi's school in India proved that children are important to the world.

Kathryn Shulz: On Being Wrong

Kathryn Shulz: It's okay to be wrong



Kathryn Shulz's talk was very inspirational because it made one think of how they live and make their decisions in a totally opposite way than the norm. We are used to being right, and dislike it when we are proven wrong.

When I was in elementary school, the way any student succeeded is if they did work based on what grades they got, because that was what's right. In many schools, it is still like that today. It is almost as if the school systems conform students to be the perfect over-achieving hard-worker because that is what's right in society. Our culture also teaches us to shun those who are wrong, who fail their tests and projects, because they are the losers who can't do anything right. Kathryn Shulz flips that prospective over into one where it's okay to be wrong. She says that from a young age, people live in a "Bubble of Rightness" where you live in the present and you're always right. Shulz wants us to break out of that bubble and embrace the wrong.

Shulz said that what's scary is not actually BEING wrong, but REALIZING you're wrong. She compared this to the childhood show about the coyote and the roadrunner. The coyote runs off the cliff and he keeps running until he looks down, and that's when he falls. That is a perfect example of how we are. Even when we are wrong, we are so convinced we are in the right that we're walking on air. It's the realization that's embarrassing, because when one realizes they were wrong they feel like there is something wrong with themselves. There is nothing wrong with you if you are wrong. It just shows that humans are not perfect. Kathryn said that our minds are amazing, because they do not allow us to see what the world is, but what it isn't. The problem is, it is human nature to want to know more.

The funny thing to me is that our culture enjoys stories of mistakes someone has made. We enjoy stories because they make those mistakes laughable, and something you can look back on and learn from. So why can't we apply enjoying the story to enjoying the real wrongs in life?

I found Shulz to be very interesting to listen to. She wasn't the most charismatic person, however there was something in her voice that showed how passionate about the subject she is, and how she wants us to realize that it is okay to be wrong. That is what I feel made her remarkable. She ended her talk by saying sometimes all we have to do is step out of that "Bubble of Rightness" into something we don't know. To look up at the vast universe around us and say, "Wow, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong."

Dave Eggers' wish: Once Upon A School

Dave Eggers' Wish For Education

Dave Eggers' TEDtalk was about education. He uses a new approach to education, in a way that can benefit all students. No more students listening to their lecturing teachers. Instead, Dave Eggers helped create a new kind of learning in which students could get the help and face time they need in order to learn efficiently.

I really love the way Eggers approaches education. He does so with an open mind, and thinks about what would work best for the children. His idea of giving everyone free tutoring may not be the first time people have thought about it, however it's such a great way to encourage kids to learn through their own techniques. Not everyone is good at learning the standardized way, and each child has a special something that helps them learn more easily. I think one of the most important things Eggers mentioned during his talk was that the kids need to work with someone face-to-face, who can help that child reach their full potential, because through hard work they come to believe in themselves and their ability to learn and create new things from learning.

Eggers mentioned that he was nervous for his TEDtalk, and boy was he. By the way he spoke, his voice occasionally faltered and he seemed to get off-topic quite a lot. This did show courage because he came to do the talk even though public-speaking made him uncomfortable. Dave did a great job in adding comedic relief here and there in order to lighten the mood or even to collect his train of thought.

The stores themselves are also extremely interesting and creative. Since there cannot be a nonprofit organization in a retail area, Eggers designed the front of the store into a Pirate Supply Store. He set a standard of creative nonsense stores, and those who have followed in his footsteps come up with equally wacky and fun stores that may look weird from the outside, but provide education the way kids need it from within.

A part I liked a lot about Dave Eggers' speech was that he concluded his talk with his TEDwish, which was somewhat of a challenge. He said that he hopes we will become more active and engaged in public schooling and tell our amazing story about how we made a difference.