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[Music] 

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[Birds tweeting] 

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Ever feel like you’re capable 

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of far more than what society expects of you?

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I know I do.

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Remember being a teenage 

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and school being less about a passion to learn 

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and more about getting good grades?

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How many times did you sit in class 

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bored and desperate to just get away?

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Every teen’s felt that.

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Albert Einstein acted on it.

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Age just 15, 

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he’s sitting in class, 

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when all of a sudden, 

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he decides enough is enough,

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gets up and walks right out the door.

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He never goes back.

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Remember being a kid 

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and just wanting to play around with stuff, 

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pull things apart, 

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knock things together, 

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and the grown-up saying, “No, no, no,”

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or being called good for sitting still 

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or naughty when you couldn’t bear 

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to sit still any longer.

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It’s all completely well-intentioned, of course.

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But that doesn’t make it any less insane, 

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because the fact is, 

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our capacity to create and learn 

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knows no bounds, 

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and the latest research proves it.

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The invention of MRI scans 

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only in the past 25 years 

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has allowed scientists to see 

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which parts of the brain 

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are used by different kinds of thinking.

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We now know infinitely more than we did 

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about how we learn 

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and what makes up human intelligence, 

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and it’s extraordinary.

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So want to know what you’re really capable of?

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Let’s start at the beginning.

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A baby’s brain is amazing.

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It doesn’t take nine months to create.

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It’s taken 7 million years 

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and around 350,000 generations.

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All the skills, knowledge, and talents 

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cultivated by our ancestors 

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are stored inside it.

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These are like numerous software programs, 

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which can only be activated 

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by the baby engaging with its environment.

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Here’s the striking thing.

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If not activated at the most appropriate time, 

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they simply disappear.

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Take language.

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If a child doesn’t hear language 

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by around the age of 8, 

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they may never learn to speak.

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So you can see just how important 

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our interactions are.

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They ignite our dormant intelligence, 

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and they reinforce it too.

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There’s something else.

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We’ve evolved to learn by looking at things 

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from different perspectives 

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and making connections between thing, 

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and we do that through play.

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So wouldn’t it be amazing 

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if we bore all this in mind when raising kids, 

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letting them play when they’re little, 

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and when they’re older too.

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Charles Darwin’s teacher said 

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he’d never amount to much, 

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because he spent too much time 

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playing with insects.

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So let children play, 

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because it’s never just play.

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Of course, it takes more time and energy 

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to do this.

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But when you’re deciding where to focus 

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resources for kids learning, 

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you couldn’t do better 

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than focusing on pre-puberty.

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That’s when we learn by copying 

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the people around us.

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After 12, or there abouts, it’s all change.

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Say goodbye to pliable, easy child, 

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and "Hello, rebellious, challenging teenager."

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Lah!. Where did that cute baby go?

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Oh, well.

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Let’s have another look at that brain.

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See what’s happening?

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Loads of the connections 

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made through childhood 

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are breaking up and reforming. 

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From around the age of about 12 through to 20,

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the equivalent of an earthquake 

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takes place in a young person’s brain.

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No more going along 

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with what the grown-ups say.

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The adolescent brain needs to go its own way.

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“Oh, no.” say parents.

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“Oh, yes,” say evolutionary scientists, 

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because if we hadn’t developed this urge 

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to do things differently, 

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we would never have made it this far.

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Up until about 60 or 70,000 years ago, 

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it was fine for children 

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to grow up like their parents.

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But then along came the last Ice Age.

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Thank goodness for the handful of our ancestors 

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who chose to break away 

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from their doomed parents 

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freezing to death in the ancestral caves. 

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They built rafts and set off across the ocean, 

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hoping to find a place with a warmer climate.

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Critically, this made risk-taking 

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the essential feature of adolescence.

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We shouldn’t belittle adolescence.

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We should be honoring it for what it really is—

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the defining struggle; 

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the moment when the next generation 

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challenges the status quo 

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and pioneers new ways of thinking and being 

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that ensure our survival.

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Now, just imagine if we actually gave 

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adolescents the freedom to undertake 

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that struggle, 

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rather than force them to sit passively in class.

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How about trusting that their earlier 

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clone-like learning 

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now enables adolescence to spread their wings 

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and work things out for themselves.

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If that sounds terrifying, 

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it needn’t be, 

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because if we allowed their natural curiosity 

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to flourish in childhood, 

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they’ll be bursting with the longing to learn 

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and climb unscaled mountains of the mind 

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and that’s not scary.

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That’s exhilarating.

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This is the way we’ve evolved to be.

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It’s what makes us fulfilled, 

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well-adjusted human begins.

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Let’s stop trying to live in a way 

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that so goes against how we’re hardwired to live.

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Let’s allow ourselves and the next generation 

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to reclaim the  incredible gift of our ancestors.

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Adolescence is not a problem.

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It’s an opportunity.

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