TED – Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge
This video reminded me of the movie “Pay It Forward” where a teacher challenged his students to make a difference. I certainly admire what Kiran has done on such a grand scale and wonder how that would look here. The lessons about teaching or learning… is that if a child can teach it, he/she has learned it. (When the students were teaching their parents to read) When a student can see real world implications/value in what they are learning, I believe the learning truly has meaning to them. How often do we hear, “When will I ever use this again?”
The implications for my teaching or learning… make it contagious! Have students say “I can”. Let the students come up with problems they would like to solve and possible solutions. Enabling and empowering students are dynamic tools. When one takes ownership in something, the task becomes much more important. Feel it, imagine it, then do it!
The implications for administration…to allow students to go out into the community. Finding the right teachers to begin/promote this type of project. The challenge of getting the community involved. I don’t think we could shut down schools in the city and have the citywide activities as they did, but certainly school wide activities could be accommodated. I think it would certainly be easier for independent schools to tackle this endeavor especially in their religious service projects.
I agree that independent schools can take a lead here--most of us have the flexibility to do some school-wide or grade-wide activities that can put kids into that authentic experience. Our numbers are smaller as well making it logistically a little easier. BUT I think a big citywide activity could be possible... Think about some of the big projects in this area: ASO Youth Concerts serve thousands of kids each year for example. What kind of real world problem could bring kids together?
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