What if we educated our children to joy? | Antonella Verdiani | TEDxVaugirardRoad
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0:04 - 0:07I am 10 years old.
-
0:07 - 0:12This is the audition day
to enter the Scala Dance School of Milan. -
0:12 - 0:14I am walking up the steps
of a huge stairway -
0:14 - 0:17which takes me to the exam room.
-
0:17 - 0:18I am scared!
-
0:18 - 0:20I am really scared,
-
0:20 - 0:23and as I am walking up,
I see a crowd of beautiful children. -
0:23 - 0:26These are the students
of the Scala walking down, -
0:26 - 0:28they are all beautiful,
thin, and perfect. -
0:28 - 0:32I am neither perfect
nor particularly thin, -
0:32 - 0:35and I am starting to feel different.
-
0:35 - 0:37At the top of the stairs,
-
0:37 - 0:41stand two ladies
with a rather frozen smile, -
0:41 - 0:47the same smile one needs to carry while
dancing, having unbearable calf cramps. -
0:47 - 0:49That's ballet!
-
0:49 - 0:52They tell me, "Here, come in."
-
0:52 - 0:57This is a huge room with huge mirrors.
-
0:57 - 1:00And I realize that we are
some 20 little girls, -
1:00 - 1:04all rather terrified
by this austere place. -
1:04 - 1:06The piano starts to play.
-
1:07 - 1:09I remember it was "Nocturne" by Chopin.
-
1:09 - 1:12It was beautiful!
-
1:12 - 1:14The ladies tell us,
-
1:14 - 1:19"Now you can dance
your own way, barefoot." -
1:19 - 1:21Luckily enough I think,
because at that moment, -
1:21 - 1:25I don't remember anything
from my two years of dance classes -
1:25 - 1:31and I start dancing,
I launch myself into dance, -
1:31 - 1:33propelled by the music.
-
1:33 - 1:37And as I am dancing,
I remember the comforting words -
1:37 - 1:42from my professor,
my maestro, Maestro Morucci -
1:42 - 1:47when he used to say, "Listen,
there are two important things: -
1:47 - 1:50technique and passion.
-
1:50 - 1:53One day, they will come together as one."
-
1:53 - 1:57"You have passion, it is your treasure."
-
1:58 - 2:03Suddenly, with a hand-clap,
the music stops. -
2:03 - 2:07Now we have to go through the inspection
with these two ladies -
2:07 - 2:09still holding the same smile.
-
2:09 - 2:12Then, one of them starts
to examine my feet -
2:12 - 2:14and my legs, especially my feet.
-
2:14 - 2:19She stares at them,
and then she calls someone; -
2:19 - 2:25her friend or colleague tells her
something that I don't understand. -
2:25 - 2:29She also asks me
to turn around in front of her. -
2:29 - 2:32At that moment, the same impression
of being different, -
2:33 - 2:35the one I felt in the staircase
-
2:35 - 2:42when I was there, watching
the students, comes back. -
2:42 - 2:43I must be someone very odd.
-
2:43 - 2:47I think about my feet,
they are really odd. -
2:47 - 2:50Secretly, I look at
my friends' feet which seem, -
2:50 - 2:54of course, the most elegant in the world.
-
2:54 - 2:58Fortunately,
the inspection comes to its end. -
2:58 - 3:04Now, we have to go to another room,
this one is a classroom. -
3:04 - 3:09This is the Scala Primary School
pupils classroom. -
3:09 - 3:13And it is a classroom
with old wooden benches, -
3:13 - 3:16a blackboard, a real classroom.
-
3:17 - 3:21"Sit on the benches!" they command us,
"Now we are going to call the roll!" -
3:21 - 3:24And as the names are called,
-
3:24 - 3:28we are shown
either the right side or the left side. -
3:28 - 3:32Then one of the ladies,
still holding the same smile of course, -
3:32 - 3:36tells us, "Now, we have made our decision:
-
3:37 - 3:42here on the right side, are the pupils
we selected to enter the Scala, -
3:42 - 3:47and on the left, the ones
that we, unfortunately, cannot take on. -
3:47 - 3:49You may leave."
-
3:51 - 3:53I am on the left.
-
3:54 - 3:59Suddenly, I realize why my feet have
been under such a thorough examination, -
3:59 - 4:05and the confirmation of the fact
that I am someone really odd comes. -
4:05 - 4:08All of a sudden, tears start
running down my cheeks. -
4:09 - 4:12I remember, more than tears,
those were desperate sobs. -
4:12 - 4:14Despite the tears,
-
4:14 - 4:17I still manage to get down
the stairs and get to the place -
4:17 - 4:21my mother has been waiting
for me on the first floor, -
4:21 - 4:25and I tell her in a tired voice,
"Mommy, I was turned down." -
4:25 - 4:32Suddenly, in a snap,
my life, my beautiful world -
4:32 - 4:36of a little girl destined to be
a dancer falls apart. -
4:36 - 4:43From good pupil, I turn into someone
bad, a monster with ugly feet. -
4:45 - 4:49I still picture myself in the bus
which was taking me home. -
4:49 - 4:51I was sobbing.
-
4:51 - 4:53I also remember,
-
4:53 - 4:57all these years when I had to wear
sandals in summer, -
4:57 - 5:00I was ashamed of my feet,
but I didn't know why. -
5:00 - 5:02No one ever told me.
-
5:02 - 5:07And then, again, during at least
10 years after this episode, -
5:07 - 5:10my heart was breaking
every time someone, -
5:10 - 5:14thinking it would please me,
took me to a dance performance, -
5:14 - 5:16or whenever I saw one on TV.
-
5:16 - 5:18The pain kept coming back, every time,
-
5:18 - 5:22as if I had forgotten
the meaning of the word "happiness", -
5:22 - 5:27as if I had lost the right to be happy.
-
5:27 - 5:31Fortunately, time heals all wounds.
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5:31 - 5:35One day, I set myself free
from this failure circle, -
5:35 - 5:40and I realized there were
1,000 ways to dance life. -
5:40 - 5:43And then, I realized something else:
-
5:43 - 5:49that episode, this child wound
had not broken one, -
5:49 - 5:51even two essential things to me:
-
5:51 - 5:56the ability to dream
and the love of life, -
5:56 - 5:58the one I felt when I was dancing.
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5:58 - 6:01So, as a young adult, and even now,
-
6:02 - 6:06I started taking lessons, and I still
continue to take dance lessons, -
6:06 - 6:10ballet, tango, tarantella...
-
6:11 - 6:15I am not telling you
all this to relate my life. -
6:16 - 6:22There is nothing extraordinary,
it is normal, it is common. -
6:23 - 6:26It happened to me, it can happen to you,
-
6:26 - 6:30or maybe it will happen to your children.
-
6:30 - 6:34To me, there is absolutely nothing
normal about that. -
6:34 - 6:38This episode is the expression
of an ordinary cruelty -
6:38 - 6:42that our world,
with our educational system ahead, -
6:42 - 6:46keeps inflicting on children,
killing their ability to dream. -
6:47 - 6:50I cannot contribute to this.
-
6:51 - 6:53I don't want to contribute to this.
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6:55 - 6:59So, when I started to be
-
6:59 - 7:03able to decide for myself,
-
7:03 - 7:05I went to the university.
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7:06 - 7:13I first made post-graduate studies,
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7:13 - 7:18and I wrote a thesis
called "Educating to Joy". -
7:19 - 7:21What does "Educating to Joy" mean?
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7:21 - 7:25I first discovered that joy
is my passion today. -
7:25 - 7:27And you wouldn't believe it,
-
7:27 - 7:36but I discovered that the word "joy",
its etymology in Sanskrit is "Yuj". -
7:36 - 7:40This means the link,
it is a connection, a relation. -
7:40 - 7:42It's beautiful!
-
7:42 - 7:45But what does being linked mean?
-
7:45 - 7:50What is being linked? I
think it is very simple. -
7:50 - 7:55I saw it in children,
you experienced it too, I remember. -
7:55 - 7:56My body memory told me,
-
7:56 - 8:01it was what I was experiencing while
I was dancing and I watched the children, -
8:01 - 8:08while they are drawing, playing,
doing things they particularly like, -
8:08 - 8:12they forget the world around them.
-
8:12 - 8:15They are so absorbed that you
can call them for two hours, -
8:15 - 8:21they can't hear you
and they are learning without any fatigue. -
8:21 - 8:23That's great.
-
8:23 - 8:24This relation takes me back
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8:25 - 8:28to what I experienced
when I was dancing without fatigue. -
8:28 - 8:31It was to be in direct contact
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8:31 - 8:36with the world, the sky, and the earth,
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8:36 - 8:40with animals, flowers, people, with you.
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8:42 - 8:44What does it have to do with education?
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8:44 - 8:47A lot!
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8:47 - 8:53Because imagine,
if we based education on that, -
8:53 - 8:58if we started from something
that permaculture has already discovered; -
8:58 - 9:02permaculture, you know,
is an ecological science. -
9:02 - 9:06Permaculture says,
"Cultivate where it is already fertile." -
9:06 - 9:12Can you imagine what it would
mean to start being able to learn -
9:12 - 9:17from our own richness and our treasure?
-
9:17 - 9:19Revolutionizing education.
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9:19 - 9:22This would completely change the world.
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9:22 - 9:27It would also mean learning
without any fatigue. -
9:27 - 9:31In the past, teachers,
educators, philosophers, -
9:31 - 9:36had already understood this:
Montessori, Steiner, Freinet. -
9:36 - 9:41They had understood,
but they were not much listened to. -
9:41 - 9:45The good news is, today,
more and more educators, -
9:45 - 9:50teachers, professors, parents,
-
9:50 - 9:54not only have taken over
these predecessors -
9:54 - 9:58but are inventing
new educational practices. -
9:58 - 10:01I assure you that I see
many, many of them. -
10:01 - 10:04These are people who invent new methods
-
10:04 - 10:10that are all based on the freedom
and respect of the child's rhythm -
10:10 - 10:14and the ability, their ability to dream.
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10:14 - 10:18My own joy is to connect,
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10:18 - 10:21to be in contact with this relation.
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10:21 - 10:27This is why, with a group of people
who still know how to dream, -
10:27 - 10:28I founded an alliance,
-
10:28 - 10:34an alliance for the renewal of education
which is called the Spring of Education. -
10:34 - 10:38Because everything is already there,
all we need to do is connect. -
10:38 - 10:40This is educating to joy.
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10:41 - 10:48After all, it is remembering
Maria Montessori's words when she said, -
10:48 - 10:52"Joy of learning is
as essential as intelligence, -
10:55 - 10:59as breathing is to runners and dancers!"
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11:00 - 11:01(Applause)
- Title:
- What if we educated our children to joy? | Antonella Verdiani | TEDxVaugirardRoad
- Description:
-
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Antonella urges us to stop killing children's dreams and instead, foster an environment where education is full of joy.
Doctor of Educational Science, Antonella Verdiani was an expert in Peace Education for UNESCO - from 1987 to 2005. International advisor and researcher, she trains teachers and parents to her transdisciplinary approach "Educating for Joy" (www. educationalajoie.com). Founder of the citizen alliance Spring of Education (www.printemps-education.org), she published the book "Those schools which make our child happy" .
- Video Language:
- French
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 11:08