Extra Credit Blog Entry

The video entitled, "Ted Talks Education", hosted by John Legend whose main focus is to address the crisis of high school drop outs all while delivering powerful and persuasive short speeches about the importance of education. Each person that spoke at TED primary purpose was to share their ideas about why kids drop out of high school and what can be done to prevent that from recurring. The first speaker was Rita F. Pierson, a dedicated teacher for 30 years, noted that kids don’t learn due to poverty, low tendency, and peer influences. People failed to recognize that as humans that we all are we all need human connection and relationships to significantly learn something new. Students would learn better they actually LIKE the person teaching them and if teachers took the time to actually emphasize WHY education is important. Many teachers fail at their roles to inspire their students and believe that they can achieve and these educators should teach to become the best you can be. Dr. Ramsey Musallam stated that curiosity enables students to draw themselves to their teachers while creating another connection.

Amongst the speakers were psychologist Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth, who spoke IQ not being necessarily the only means to being successful, millionaire Bill Gates who expressed that students need coaches to guide them in the right path, and Dr. Geoffrey Canada remembered growing up in a time were the school system was really bad and even now in this time there are school who still fail at meeting the standards. There was also Chicago poet Malcolm Lincoln, who spoke about labeling and something inspiration needs to be done in order for education not to continue to fail, Pearl Arredondo who spoke about growing up poor and the issues attached to that, Sir Ken Robinson who was my favorite speaker spoke of the No Child Left Behind act which is a curriculum that limits the only focus of standardized exams and allow students to succeed with a more diverse broaden curriculum and education is about engaging , stimulating and provoking students to learn and begin to learn without any assistance.

            As an education major I enjoy these different speeches and how these people approach the topic of adults engaging themselves more to create more successful students to put a stop to the crisis. I believe that with teachers who actually enjoy teaching and who want to build a human connection with their student this crisis will decrease whether is by allowing technology to be a major part of education that allows students to think deeper and in many different ways or similar allowing students to express their creativity such as Musallam’s student. Coaching students to go beyond their limits is something that can potentially change their lives. Building relationships that allow them not to see themselves as failures but as approaching the limits they want to cross.  Organizations like TED bring about awareness to us and different ways we can win these constant battles such as the high school drop out crisis.