0:00:14.342,0:00:16.821
I grew up unaware,

0:00:16.821,0:00:19.055
like many of you, I imagine,

0:00:19.055,0:00:20.794
that my heart was broken.

0:00:22.408,0:00:25.252
I had been an excellent student.

0:00:25.782,0:00:28.107
The kind that didn't need [br]to open a single book

0:00:28.107,0:00:30.528
to get a bunch of A's.

0:00:31.618,0:00:34.297
I had loving, open parents

0:00:34.727,0:00:37.094
who never tried to tell me [br]which way I had to go.

0:00:38.044,0:00:43.366
A grandmother that would hide[br]chocolate bars under her bra cups.

0:00:45.664,0:00:49.897
Five brothers, a dog, two cats,

0:00:49.897,0:00:51.807
and a parrot named Paco.

0:00:52.187,0:00:55.057
It was a real madhouse.

0:00:56.200,0:00:59.330
I confess, I had a wonderful childhood.

0:01:01.787,0:01:06.112
But on reaching adolescence,[br]things got complicated, of course.

0:01:07.118,0:01:08.750
I got full of zits,

0:01:09.340,0:01:11.701
and I began to devour literature

0:01:11.701,0:01:14.839
and to participate[br]in all manner of poetry contests.

0:01:16.217,0:01:22.049
At school, I participated in a study[br]done by the University of Psychology.

0:01:22.729,0:01:25.456
100 teenagers were chosen at random.

0:01:25.976,0:01:31.782
We were taken to the main hall[br]and told to draw the human being.

0:01:32.179,0:01:34.235
So far, so good.

0:01:35.365,0:01:39.912
But don't ask me what was [br]so special about my drawing.

0:01:40.342,0:01:41.555
Don't ask me

0:01:41.555,0:01:44.155
because to this day, I don't know.

0:01:44.645,0:01:49.055
All I can tell you is that they[br]came back to me three times.

0:01:50.511,0:01:52.769
They'd make me do it over.

0:01:52.769,0:01:54.399
And as I was drawing,

0:01:54.399,0:01:57.480
I would hear them talking [br]to the director of the Center,

0:01:58.650,0:02:01.605
saying that my view[br]of the human being was worrisome.

0:02:02.915,0:02:06.651
I guess it was then[br]that I stopped drawing.

0:02:07.859,0:02:09.116
And I was lucky.

0:02:09.116,0:02:11.178
I was 14 or 15 years old,

0:02:11.178,0:02:16.272
and up to then,[br]nobody had critisized my drawings.

0:02:17.949,0:02:22.509
I had grown up in an environment[br]that stimulated my creativity.

0:02:23.764,0:02:27.428
And yet, the good grades,

0:02:28.664,0:02:30.384
the poetry contests,

0:02:30.384,0:02:32.385
those excellent grades,

0:02:33.760,0:02:38.299
the psychological analysis of my drawing,[br]and those good grades

0:02:38.635,0:02:40.686
all managed to convince me.

0:02:43.016,0:02:47.374
Convince me that I[br]was not among the chosen.

0:02:48.264,0:02:50.268
So I set aside my creativity,

0:02:50.688,0:02:53.279
and dedicated myself [br]to study and to work.

0:02:54.889,0:02:59.423
Most of us here today[br]have grown up deceived.

0:03:00.924,0:03:05.441
Convinced that in a classroom [br]of 25, 30, even 40 students

0:03:06.451,0:03:09.505
perhaps only two had been blessed

0:03:09.505,0:03:12.890
by that precious stone[br]called "creativity."

0:03:13.501,0:03:16.878
As for the rest of us, [br]we had to get educated.

0:03:19.323,0:03:24.023
During the schooling of my three children,[br]I began to relive the whole process.

0:03:24.461,0:03:25.965
How could it be?

0:03:26.408,0:03:31.475
How could shool keep putting down [br]their capacity to create?

0:03:31.475,0:03:34.986
My God, almost 30 years had gone by,

0:03:34.986,0:03:39.506
and in this aspect, I can assure you [br]that nothing had changed.

0:03:41.376,0:03:42.479
Some time later,

0:03:42.479,0:03:46.758
I saw Ken Robinson's TED Talk[br]about how schools kill creativity.

0:03:47.748,0:03:49.711
That talk changed everything.

0:03:50.611,0:03:55.255
I understood what I wanted[br]and could contribute to society.

0:03:56.205,0:03:57.701
And I planned it all.

0:03:57.701,0:04:00.141
A job as Communication Manager,

0:04:00.141,0:04:03.538
an excellent team, and a good salary.

0:04:04.468,0:04:08.462
Once I'd made the decision, there I was.

0:04:09.728,0:04:11.092
Alone,

0:04:12.052,0:04:13.672
in a co-working space.

0:04:14.542,0:04:17.611
I don't know why we insist[br]on calling it co-working

0:04:17.611,0:04:22.298
because there are few places in the world[br]where you can feel so alone.

0:04:25.028,0:04:28.971
I was concentrated [br]behind my computer screen

0:04:28.971,0:04:30.864
trying to give birth to the ideas

0:04:30.864,0:04:34.208
that would give shape [br]to the project that was about to begin.

0:04:35.518,0:04:38.629
But I couldn't write a single line.

0:04:39.987,0:04:41.148
I couldn't

0:04:41.148,0:04:45.340
because before writing anything down,[br]I needed to sprawl on the floor,

0:04:45.680,0:04:49.491
get giant sheets of paper,[br]find my colored pencils,

0:04:49.944,0:04:53.924
and begin to draw[br]and imagine all possible options.

0:04:54.424,0:04:57.623
Smudge, make mistakes,

0:04:57.623,0:05:03.237
and little by little, reconnect [br]what formal education had broken in two.

0:05:05.069,0:05:09.339
I assure you that I was [br]stuck on square one.

0:05:11.059,0:05:15.529
Stuck because my education [br]had been compartmentalized.

0:05:16.266,0:05:18.328
And that made me believe

0:05:18.328,0:05:22.619
that before starting the project,[br]I had to make a crucial decision.

0:05:23.429,0:05:27.018
A life or death decision.

0:05:28.378,0:05:31.774
I had to choose[br]between art and literature.

0:05:32.844,0:05:35.899
Between drawing or writing.

0:05:36.739,0:05:38.918
And I couldn't.

0:05:39.888,0:05:41.551
I couldn't, because for me,

0:05:41.551,0:05:46.948
separating those two languages[br]meant splitting myself, literally, in two.

0:05:48.158,0:05:50.650
Can you imagine the situation?

0:05:50.650,0:05:52.696
40 years.

0:05:52.696,0:05:58.264
And feeling exactly the same way[br]that any child feels

0:05:58.645,0:06:03.796
who is asked to choose between the love [br]of his father or the love of his mother.

0:06:06.377,0:06:12.342
It was then, at that moment,[br]that the idea of PictoWriting was born.

0:06:13.385,0:06:15.412
Picto-Writing.

0:06:16.072,0:06:19.993
I decided then to design a method

0:06:20.553,0:06:25.887
that would let children learn to write[br]without having to stop drawing.

0:06:26.337,0:06:29.894
On the contrary, it would use [br]the potential that images have,

0:06:29.894,0:06:32.137
especially their own drawings,

0:06:32.137,0:06:35.730
as a tool to teach them how to write.

0:06:35.730,0:06:39.884
Once I knew the educational innovation[br]that I wanted to accomplish,

0:06:39.884,0:06:41.888
I got to work.

0:06:41.888,0:06:47.385
I contacted a bunch of illustrators, [br]writers, schools, teachers, linguists,

0:06:47.385,0:06:50.808
and we began to actively [br]participate in classrooms.

0:06:52.038,0:06:54.615
Do you know what I found?

0:06:54.615,0:06:59.282
And what I keep finding day after day[br]in all primary classrooms?

0:07:00.002,0:07:02.216
A bunch of kids.

0:07:02.216,0:07:05.803
A bunch of kids with broken hearts.

0:07:07.353,0:07:11.610
Clinging, like shipwrecked castaways,[br]to their rubber erasers.

0:07:13.021,0:07:16.739
Don't be surprised if one of these days[br]it's finally revealed

0:07:17.164,0:07:21.869
that it's the Pro-Fab manufacturers [br]that stock schools with so many erasers.

0:07:23.692,0:07:27.540
I ask you to think for a moment[br]of your own children.

0:07:28.470,0:07:33.646
Remember when they were 3, 4, 5 years old.[br]Before they started school.

0:07:34.203,0:07:38.108
When children draw at that age,[br]they're not afraid.

0:07:38.728,0:07:40.340
They enjoy what they're doing,

0:07:40.340,0:07:43.520
no matter what it is,[br]or what anyone else thinks.

0:07:44.270,0:07:48.893
Mind you, their drawing in no way[br]tries to be a photocopy of reality.

0:07:49.885,0:07:53.466
Rather, it's their unique [br]interpretation of the world.

0:07:53.466,0:07:57.681
And the most important thing is[br]that when they draw, they're connected.

0:07:58.220,0:08:02.280
If you ask them, they know very well[br]what they're drawing and why.

0:08:03.380,0:08:09.432
We are born knowing who we are,[br]and wanting to express it in drawings.

0:08:10.336,0:08:14.153
But suddenly we get to school.

0:08:14.153,0:08:15.589
To elementary.

0:08:15.589,0:08:19.221
And the only thing that matters[br]is to learn how to write.

0:08:19.851,0:08:22.959
To have good handwriting,[br]to not get out of line,

0:08:22.959,0:08:26.273
not make spelling mistakes ...

0:08:26.273,0:08:30.023
From one day to the next, we grow up.

0:08:30.023,0:08:32.451
And that's where the drama begins.

0:08:33.471,0:08:38.611
Drawing, that emotional, [br]universal language,

0:08:38.611,0:08:42.516
stops being a learning tool.

0:08:43.306,0:08:46.279
If you're lucky, you get to draw[br]during art class,

0:08:46.279,0:08:50.119
but mind you, [br]the time has come to do it right.

0:08:50.559,0:08:54.066
The time has come to start erasing.

0:08:54.696,0:08:57.611
Welcome! Welcome, eraser!

0:08:57.611,0:09:00.919
You will start by teaching us[br]to erase our mistakes

0:09:00.919,0:09:02.814
instead of learning from them.

0:09:03.364,0:09:06.723
And little by little [br]you'll end up censuring

0:09:06.723,0:09:11.033
everything that was special[br]about each and every one of us.

0:09:12.734,0:09:17.231
When a 6-, 7-, or 8-year-old child[br]is learning how to write,

0:09:17.820,0:09:21.213
and for whatever reason [br]their accompanying adult

0:09:21.213,0:09:24.694
prematurely corrects [br]whatever the child is creating,

0:09:26.735,0:09:28.791
judges whatever the child is producing

0:09:28.791,0:09:31.447
before giving him or her time

0:09:31.447,0:09:34.826
to create the story [br]he or she wants to tell us,

0:09:34.826,0:09:38.967
in that way inviting him to gain [br]insecurity and begin to erase,

0:09:38.967,0:09:42.876
what message do you think [br]the child receives?

0:09:43.656,0:09:47.524
We teach them too early [br]to not be themselves.

0:09:48.410,0:09:52.247
And to desperately seek out [br]the adult's approval.

0:09:53.485,0:09:55.310
In less than one year,

0:09:55.670,0:09:58.950
they will all be drawing[br]and writing exactly the same.

0:10:00.240,0:10:02.229
Because as you can imagine,

0:10:02.229,0:10:07.079
drawing is the first language [br]we take away from them.

0:10:07.079,0:10:09.814
But all the others follow.

0:10:10.704,0:10:14.009
Of course, the time has come [br]to teach them to read and write.

0:10:14.009,0:10:17.311
But not at any cost.

0:10:19.161,0:10:24.340
I want to propose a simple change[br]in the education of your children.

0:10:25.446,0:10:30.257
In the face of the visual bombardment [br]that children grow up with today,

0:10:30.260,0:10:33.102
let's include gymnastics of imagination.

0:10:33.442,0:10:37.574
And for that, it's very important [br]that they not stop drawing.

0:10:37.574,0:10:40.729
That they grow in both languages.

0:10:40.729,0:10:43.883
PictoWriting gives us that opportunity.

0:10:43.883,0:10:45.887
It allows us to teach them to write.

0:10:45.887,0:10:47.348
Yes, to write.

0:10:47.348,0:10:49.719
But at the same time[br]we stimulate their creativity

0:10:49.719,0:10:53.114
and their capacity for reading[br]and producing images

0:10:53.114,0:10:56.324
without all that emotional baggage.

0:10:58.384,0:11:02.675
PictoWriting is a method that above all,[br]and most importantly,

0:11:03.442,0:11:07.077
respects the child's creative process.

0:11:08.637,0:11:11.234
Throughout these last five years,

0:11:11.234,0:11:14.795
we have given PictoWriting training[br]to nearly 300 teachers.

0:11:14.797,0:11:19.127
And more than 3,500 children[br]have already grown up using this method.

0:11:20.214,0:11:23.462
The results are spectacular.

0:11:24.462,0:11:27.613
Spectacular because of everything [br]that gets transformed.

0:11:28.403,0:11:31.327
When you change the way[br]you teach them to write,

0:11:31.327,0:11:35.363
you also change the way[br]that teachers see their students.

0:11:36.093,0:11:39.508
Not long ago, a teacher was telling us,

0:11:39.508,0:11:40.663
"Thank you.

0:11:40.663,0:11:46.073
I thought I had five good students.[br]Now I know I have 25."

0:11:48.213,0:11:53.245
97% of kids have loved PictoWriting.

0:11:53.246,0:11:59.208
And because of this, they write longer, [br]richer, and better texts.

0:11:59.208,0:12:01.229
Now it turns out

0:12:01.229,0:12:05.021
that learning how to write isn't a chore[br]or an insurmountable obstacle.

0:12:05.761,0:12:07.953
Instead, they don't even[br]want to go to recess

0:12:07.953,0:12:10.486
because they're writing and drawing.

0:12:10.486,0:12:11.723
Oh, friend.

0:12:11.723,0:12:15.785
You see, creating stories[br]is the closest thing to playing.

0:12:16.725,0:12:21.821
And 42% of those students[br]have told us in their own handwriting

0:12:22.427,0:12:25.733
that this method [br]has made them feel special.

0:12:27.663,0:12:29.862
What a difference[br]could be made in the world

0:12:30.542,0:12:36.205
if we were to grow up knowing[br]that each and every one of us

0:12:36.619,0:12:42.554
is unique and special[br]with an amazing story to tell.

0:12:43.459,0:12:44.758
Thank you.

0:12:44.758,0:12:46.658
(Applause)