Raising a Generation that Has a 4.0 in Problem Solving: An Inspiring Talk
My generation will not need to be good test takers or be able to read 300 words a minute or be able to get stellar scores on the ACTs or SATs or LSATs. My generation will need to be innovators, thinkers, and above all: "Solutionaries." I recently saw a video from a TEDx talk that was uploaded onto youtube. The speaker's name was Zoe Weil, and she talked about just that -- how we need to be raising not just students, but solutionaries for what our world has become. She talked about the "true price" of what clothing costs today, how much of an impact even a t-shirt makes on our planet.
Another amazing insight Weil offered was on debates. She talked about hearing a debate on NPR about whether or not Mexico's drug woes were the fault of America. She wondered how such a wide open question could be reduced to a yes/no issue, which made sense to me. But what really hit home is when she began to talk about having real debates in schools. I, for one have been a part of the public school system for two years and have not had ONE debate that called upon my skills as a critical thinker. Therefore, I was instantly interested.
Zoe said that we should have kids debating in schools, but in a slightly different way. We should be debating and thinking about how to come up with the most cost effective, viable and sustainable solutions for today's issues. Instead of the debate teams of today, we could form "solutionary teams" and compete at the local, state and national level, and in the end, we may actually be able to implement the solutions we come with, and have a say in our world.
Why is this so brilliant? Because I know first hand how apathetic kids can be about our world, and how much they don't know about it. So this would benefit us in more than one way. We could research these issues and discover how they're impacting us right now, and we would also be stimulating our minds about how to solve problems. This is the time for our nation to begin to make some defining decisions: Are you going to hand to us another practice quiz for Trigonometry? Or is my generation finally going to be able to get some real practice on how to fix our world?
Zoe Weil's talk had a real impact on me, not only because it was moving and funny at the same time and kept my attention, but because it covered such a large amount of interesting material in such a short time, and in such a crystal clear way. She really hit her mark. I urge anyone who has any interest in saving our world and helping give my generation the tools to do so, to take just fifteen minutes out of your day to watch it, and maybe another few to share it with your friends. It is vital to my generation and yours that we begin to make some real changes in the way we live, and this gifted speaker doesn't just tell you to do it, she shows you how. We should all follow her example.
Posted in DemEd in Real LifeYouth Leadership on Jan 21, 2011 - 01:32 PM
What are the issues we're all trying to solve right now? World hunger, wars against other nations, a failing economy, just to name a few. It can be so depressing and infuriating to be a kid of just almost sixteen and know that my generation has so many sorrows and woes to deal with that have been laid down by generations long gone.My generation will not need to be good test takers or be able to read 300 words a minute or be able to get stellar scores on the ACTs or SATs or LSATs. My generation will need to be innovators, thinkers, and above all: "Solutionaries." I recently saw a video from a TEDx talk that was uploaded onto youtube. The speaker's name was Zoe Weil, and she talked about just that -- how we need to be raising not just students, but solutionaries for what our world has become. She talked about the "true price" of what clothing costs today, how much of an impact even a t-shirt makes on our planet.
Another amazing insight Weil offered was on debates. She talked about hearing a debate on NPR about whether or not Mexico's drug woes were the fault of America. She wondered how such a wide open question could be reduced to a yes/no issue, which made sense to me. But what really hit home is when she began to talk about having real debates in schools. I, for one have been a part of the public school system for two years and have not had ONE debate that called upon my skills as a critical thinker. Therefore, I was instantly interested.
Zoe said that we should have kids debating in schools, but in a slightly different way. We should be debating and thinking about how to come up with the most cost effective, viable and sustainable solutions for today's issues. Instead of the debate teams of today, we could form "solutionary teams" and compete at the local, state and national level, and in the end, we may actually be able to implement the solutions we come with, and have a say in our world.
Why is this so brilliant? Because I know first hand how apathetic kids can be about our world, and how much they don't know about it. So this would benefit us in more than one way. We could research these issues and discover how they're impacting us right now, and we would also be stimulating our minds about how to solve problems. This is the time for our nation to begin to make some defining decisions: Are you going to hand to us another practice quiz for Trigonometry? Or is my generation finally going to be able to get some real practice on how to fix our world?
Zoe Weil's talk had a real impact on me, not only because it was moving and funny at the same time and kept my attention, but because it covered such a large amount of interesting material in such a short time, and in such a crystal clear way. She really hit her mark. I urge anyone who has any interest in saving our world and helping give my generation the tools to do so, to take just fifteen minutes out of your day to watch it, and maybe another few to share it with your friends. It is vital to my generation and yours that we begin to make some real changes in the way we live, and this gifted speaker doesn't just tell you to do it, she shows you how. We should all follow her example.
Tags for this entry:
video,
global education,
social responsibility,
debate,
zoe weil,
ted
