TED演讲-What-Adult-Can-Learn-From-KIds

1、Now, I want to start with a question: When was the last time you were called childish? For kids like me, being called childish can be a frequent occurrence. Every time we make irrational demands, exhibit irresponsible behavior, or display any other signs of being normal American citizens, we are called childish, which really bothers me. After all, take a look at these events: Imperialism and colonization, world wars, George W. Bush. Ask yourself: Whos responsible? Adults. Now, what have kids don

2、e? Well, Anne Frank touched millions with her powerful account of the Holocaust, Ruby Bridges helped end segregation in the United States, and, most recently, Charlie Simpson helped to raise 120,000 pounds for Haiti on his little bike. So, as you can see evidenced by such examples, age has absolutely nothing to do with it. The traits the word childish addresses are seen so often in adults that we should abolish this age-discriminatory word when it comes to criticizing behavior associated with ir

3、responsibility and irrational thinking. Thank you. Then again, whos to say that certain types of irrational thinking arent exactly what the world needs? Maybe youve had grand plans before, but stopped yourself, thinking: Thats impossible or that costs too much or that wont benefit me. For better or worse, we kids arent hampered as much when it comes to thinking about reasons why not to do things. Kids can be full of inspiring aspirations and hopeful thinking, like my wish that no one went hungry

4、 or that everything were free kind of utopia. How many of you still dream like that and believe in the possibilities? Sometimes a knowledge of history and the past failures of utopian ideals can be a burden because you know that if everything were free, that the food stocks would become depleted, and scarce and lead to chaos. On the other hand, we kids still dream about perfection. And thats a good thing because in order to make anything a reality, you have to dream about it first. In many ways,

5、 our audacity to imagine helps push the boundaries of possibility. For instance, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, my home state - yoohoo Washington - (Applause) has a program called Kids Design Glass, and kids draw their own ideas for glass art. Now, the resident artist said they got some of their best ideas through the program because kids dont think about the limitations of how hard it can be to blow glass into certain shapes. They just think of good ideas. Now, when you think of gla

6、ss, you might think of colorful Chihuly designs or maybe Italian vases, but kids challenge glass artists to go beyond that into the realm of broken-hearted snakes and bacon boys, who you can see has meat vision. (Laughter) Now, our inherent wisdom doesnt have to be insiders knowledge. Kids already do a lot of learning from adults, and we have a lot to share. I think that adults should start learning from kids. Now, I do most of my speaking in front of an education crowd, teachers and students, a

7、nd I like this analogy. It shouldnt just be a teacher at the head of the classroom telling students do this, do that. The students should teach their teachers. Learning between grown ups and kids should be reciprocal. The reality, unfortunately, is a little different, and it has a lot to do with trust, or a lack of it. Now, if you dont trust someone, you place restrictions on them, right. If I doubt my older sisters ability to pay back the 10 percent interest I established on her last loan, Im g

8、oing to withhold her ability to get more money from me until she pays it back. (Laughter) True story, by the way. Now, adults seem to have a prevalently restrictive attitude towards kids from every dont do that, dont do this in the school handbook, to restrictions on school internet use. As history points out, regimes become oppressive when theyre fearful about keeping control. And, although adults may not be quite at the level of totalitarian regimes, kids have no, or very little, say in making

9、 the rules, when really the attitude should be reciprocal, meaning that the adult population should learn and take into account the wishes of the younger population. Now, whats even worse than restriction is that adults often underestimate kids abilities. We love challenges, but when expectations are low, trust me, we will sink to them. My own parents had anything but low expectations for me and my sister. Okay, so they didnt tell us to become doctors or lawyers or anything like that, but my dad did read to us about Aristotle and pioneer germ fighters when lots of other kids were hearing The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round. Well, we heard that one too, but Pioneer Germ Fighters totally rules. (Laughter) I loved to write from the age of four, and when I was six my mom bought me my own laptop equipped with Microsoft Word. Thank you Bill Gates and thank you Ma. I wrote over 300 short stories on that little laptop, and I wanted to get publ

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