WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.000 I was here four years ago, 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 and I remember, at the time, 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.000 that the talks weren't put online. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:12.000 I think they were given to TEDsters in a box, 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:14.000 a box set of DVDs, 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000 which they put on their shelves, where they are now. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:19.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:21.000 And actually, Chris called me 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:23.000 a week after I'd given my talk 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.000 and he said, "We're going to start putting them online. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Can we put yours online?" And I said, "Sure." NOTE Paragraph 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 And four years later, 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 as I said, it's been seen by four ... 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.000 Well, it's been downloaded four million times. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000 So I suppose you could multiply that by 20 or something 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.000 to get the number of people who've seen it. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.000 And, as Chris says, there is a hunger 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.000 for videos of me. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:55.000 ... don't you feel? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.000 So, this whole event has been an elaborate build-up 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:07.000 to me doing another one for you, so here it is. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:08.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.000 Al Gore spoke 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:15.000 at the TED conference I spoke at four years ago 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000 and talked about the climate crisis. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000 And I referenced that 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.000 at the end of my last talk. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.000 So I want to pick up from there 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.000 because I only had 18 minutes, frankly. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.000 So, as I was saying... NOTE Paragraph 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:33.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:38.000 You see, he's right. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.000 I mean, there is a major climate crisis, obviously, 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.000 and I think if people don't believe it, they should get out more. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 (Laughter) 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:50.000 But I believe there's a second climate crisis, 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 which is as severe, 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.000 which has the same origins, 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:59.000 and that we have to deal with with the same urgency. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.000 And I mean by this -- 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 and you may say, by the way, "Look, I'm good. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 I have one climate crisis; 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:08.000 I don't really need the second one." 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.000 But this is a crisis of, not natural resources -- 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.000 though I believe that's true -- 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.000 but a crisis of human resources. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.000 I believe fundamentally, 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:19.000 as many speakers have said during the past few days, 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.000 that we make very poor use 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.000 of our talents. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:27.000 Very many people go through their whole lives 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.000 having no real sense of what their talents may be, 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.000 or if they have any to speak of. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.000 I meet all kinds of people 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.000 who don't think they're really good at anything. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.000 Actually, I kind of divide the world into two groups now. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.000 Jeremy Bentham, the great utilitarian philosopher, 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.000 once spiked this argument. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:48.000 He said, "There are two types of people in this world: 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.000 those who divide the world into two types 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 and those who do not." 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.000 (Laughter) 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000 Well, I do. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.000 I meet all kinds of people 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.000 who don't enjoy what they do. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.000 They simply go through their lives 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.000 getting on with it. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.000 They get no great pleasure from what they do. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.000 They endure it rather than enjoy it 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.000 and wait for the weekend. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 But I also meet people 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 who love what they do 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.000 and couldn't imagine doing anything else. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.000 If you said to them, "Don't do this anymore," they'd wonder what you were talking about. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.000 Because it isn't what they do, it's who they are. They say, 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.000 "But this is me, you know. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.000 It would be foolish for me to abandon this, because 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:39.000 it speaks to my most authentic self." 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:42.000 And it's not true of enough people. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.000 In fact, on the contrary, I think 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.000 it's still true of a minority of people. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.000 I think there are many NOTE Paragraph 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.000 possible explanations for it. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.000 And high among them 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.000 is education, 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.000 because education, in a way, 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.000 dislocates very many people 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.000 from their natural talents. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.000 And human resources are like natural resources; 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:05.000 they're often buried deep. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:07.000 You have to go looking for them, 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.000 they're not just lying around on the surface. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:12.000 You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.000 And you might imagine 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000 education would be the way that happens, 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.000 but too often it's not. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.000 Every education system in the world 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.000 is being reformed at the moment 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:24.000 and it's not enough. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Reform is no use anymore, 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.000 because that's simply improving a broken model. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:31.000 What we need -- 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:33.000 and the word's been used many times during the course of the past few days -- 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 is not evolution, 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000 but a revolution in education. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:40.000 This has to be transformed 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.000 into something else. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:47.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.000 One of the real challenges 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.000 is to innovate fundamentally 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.000 in education. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.000 Innovation is hard 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.000 because it means doing something 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.000 that people don't find very easy, for the most part. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.000 It means challenging what we take for granted, 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:06.000 things that we think are obvious. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:08.000 The great problem for reform 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.000 or transformation 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:12.000 is the tyranny of common sense; 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.000 things that people think, 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.000 "Well, it can't be done any other way because that's the way it's done." NOTE Paragraph 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 I came across a great quote recently from Abraham Lincoln, 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.000 who I thought you'd be pleased to have quoted at this point. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 (Laughter) 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 He said this in December 1862 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:30.000 to the second annual meeting of Congress. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.000 I ought to explain that I have no idea what was happening at the time. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.000 We don't teach American history in Britain. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.000 (Laughter) 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.000 We suppress it. You know, this is our policy. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:45.000 (Laughter) 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.000 So, no doubt, something fascinating was happening in December 1862, 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.000 which the Americans among us 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.000 will be aware of. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.000 But he said this: 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:57.000 "The dogmas 00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:59.000 of the quiet past 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:02.000 are inadequate to the stormy present. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.000 The occasion 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:06.000 is piled high with difficulty, 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.000 and we must rise with the occasion." 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.000 I love that. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.000 Not rise to it, rise with it. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.000 "As our case is new, 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:20.000 so we must think anew 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.000 and act anew. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:26.000 We must disenthrall ourselves, 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:29.000 and then we shall save our country." NOTE Paragraph 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.000 I love that word, "disenthrall." 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:33.000 You know what it means? 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:36.000 That there are ideas that all of us are enthralled to, 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.000 which we simply take for granted 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.000 as the natural order of things, the way things are. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:42.000 And many of our ideas 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.000 have been formed, not to meet the circumstances of this century, 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:48.000 but to cope with the circumstances of previous centuries. 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:50.000 But our minds are still hypnotized by them, 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.000 and we have to disenthrall ourselves of some of them. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.000 Now, doing this is easier said than done. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.000 It's very hard to know, by the way, what it is you take for granted. (Laughter) 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:02.000 And the reason is that you take it for granted. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:05.000 So let me ask you something you may take for granted. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.000 How many of you here are over the age of 25? 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.000 That's not what I think you take for granted, 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.000 I'm sure you're familiar with that already. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.000 Are there any people here under the age of 25? 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.000 Great. Now, those over 25, 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.000 could you put your hands up if you're wearing your wristwatch? 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:24.000 Now that's a great deal of us, isn't it? 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.000 Ask a room full of teenagers the same thing. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.000 Teenagers do not wear wristwatches. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.000 I don't mean they can't or they're not allowed to, 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:33.000 they just often choose not to. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.000 And the reason is, you see, that we were brought up 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.000 in a pre-digital culture, those of us over 25. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 And so for us, if you want to know the time 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.000 you have to wear something to tell it. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.000 Kids now live in a world which is digitized, 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.000 and the time, for them, is everywhere. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:49.000 They see no reason to do this. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.000 And by the way, you don't need to do it either; 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:54.000 it's just that you've always done it and you carry on doing it. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.000 My daughter never wears a watch, my daughter Kate, who's 20. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.000 She doesn't see the point. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:02.000 As she says, "It's a single function device." 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:07.000 (Laughter) 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.000 "Like, how lame is that?" 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.000 And I say, "No, no, it tells the date as well." 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:16.000 (Laughter) 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:20.000 "It has multiple functions." NOTE Paragraph 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:23.000 But, you see, there are things we're enthralled to in education. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:25.000 Let me give you a couple of examples. 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:28.000 One of them is the idea of linearity: 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.000 that it starts here and you go through a track 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.000 and if you do everything right, you will end up 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:35.000 set for the rest of your life. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Everybody who's spoken at TED has told us implicitly, 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.000 or sometimes explicitly, a different story: 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.000 that life is not linear; it's organic. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.000 We create our lives symbiotically 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:49.000 as we explore our talents 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:52.000 in relation to the circumstances they help to create for us. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:54.000 But, you know, we have become obsessed 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.000 with this linear narrative. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.000 And probably the pinnacle for education 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.000 is getting you to college. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.000 I think we are obsessed with getting people to college. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.000 Certain sorts of college. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:07.000 I don't mean you shouldn't go to college, but not everybody needs to go 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.000 and not everybody needs to go now. 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:11.000 Maybe they go later, not right away. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:13.000 And I was up in San Francisco a while ago 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:15.000 doing a book signing. 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.000 There was this guy buying a book, he was in his 30s. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.000 And I said, "What do you do?" 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.000 And he said, "I'm a fireman." 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:24.000 And I said, "How long have you been a fireman?" 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.000 He said, "Always. I've always been a fireman." 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:28.000 And I said, "Well, when did you decide?" 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.000 He said, "As a kid." He said, "Actually, it was a problem for me at school, 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:34.000 because at school, everybody wanted to be a fireman." 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.000 He said, "But I wanted to be a fireman." 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.000 And he said, "When I got to the senior year of school, 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:43.000 my teachers didn't take it seriously. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:45.000 This one teacher didn't take it seriously. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:47.000 He said I was throwing my life away 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.000 if that's all I chose to do with it; 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.000 that I should go to college, I should become a professional person, 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.000 that I had great potential 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:56.000 and I was wasting my talent to do that." 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.000 And he said, "It was humiliating because 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.000 he said it in front of the whole class and I really felt dreadful. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.000 But it's what I wanted, and as soon as I left school, 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.000 I applied to the fire service and I was accepted." 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:07.000 And he said, "You know, I was thinking about that guy recently, 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:10.000 just a few minutes ago when you were speaking, about this teacher," 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.000 he said, "because six months ago, 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.000 I saved his life." 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.000 (Laughter) 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.000 He said, "He was in a car wreck, 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.000 and I pulled him out, gave him CPR, 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:24.000 and I saved his wife's life as well." 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.000 He said, "I think he thinks better of me now." NOTE Paragraph 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:33.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.000 You know, to me, 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:38.000 human communities depend upon 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.000 a diversity of talent, 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.000 not a singular conception of ability. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.000 And at the heart of our challenges -- 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:47.000 (Applause) 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.000 At the heart of the challenge 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:51.000 is to reconstitute our sense of ability 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.000 and of intelligence. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.000 This linearity thing is a problem. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:57.000 When I arrived in L.A. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.000 about nine years ago, 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.000 I came across a policy statement -- 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.000 very well-intentioned -- 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:07.000 which said, "College begins in kindergarten." 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.000 No, it doesn't. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:14.000 (Laughter) 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:16.000 It doesn't. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.000 If we had time, I could go into this, but we don't. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.000 (Laughter) 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:23.000 Kindergarten begins in kindergarten. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:25.000 (Laughter) 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:27.000 A friend of mine once said, 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.000 "You know, a three year-old is not half a six year-old." 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.000 (Laughter) 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:37.000 (Applause) 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:39.000 They're three. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:41.000 But as we just heard in this last session, 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:44.000 there's such competition now to get into kindergarten -- 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:46.000 to get to the right kindergarten -- 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:49.000 that people are being interviewed for it at three. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.000 Kids sitting in front of unimpressed panels, 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:55.000 you know, with their resumes, 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:58.000 (Laughter) 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.000 flipping through and saying, "Well, this is it?" 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.000 (Laughter) 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:05.000 (Applause) 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.000 "You've been around for 36 months, and this is it?" 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:15.000 (Laughter) 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:18.000 "You've achieved nothing -- commit. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.000 Spent the first six months breastfeeding, the way I can see it." 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.000 (Laughter) 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:29.000 See, it's outrageous as a conception, but it [unclear]. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:31.000 The other big issue is conformity. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.000 We have built our education systems 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:35.000 on the model of fast food. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.000 This is something Jamie Oliver talked about the other day. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.000 You know there are two models of quality assurance in catering. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.000 One is fast food, 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.000 where everything is standardized. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.000 The other are things like Zagat and Michelin restaurants, 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.000 where everything is not standardized, 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.000 they're customized to local circumstances. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.000 And we have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education, 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.000 and it's impoverishing our spirit and our energies 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.000 as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:04.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:07.000 I think we have to recognize a couple of things here. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.000 One is that human talent is tremendously diverse. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.000 People have very different aptitudes. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.000 I worked out recently that 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.000 I was given a guitar as a kid 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.000 at about the same time that Eric Clapton got his first guitar. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:23.000 You know, it worked out for Eric, that's all I'm saying. 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:25.000 (Laughter) 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.000 In a way, it did not for me. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:30.000 I could not get this thing to work 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.000 no matter how often or how hard I blew into it. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:34.000 (Laughter) It just wouldn't work. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.000 But it's not only about that. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:41.000 It's about passion. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Often, people are good at things they don't really care for. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:45.000 It's about passion, 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:48.000 and what excites our spirit and our energy. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.000 And if you're doing the thing that you love to do, that you're good at, 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:54.000 time takes a different course entirely. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.000 My wife's just finished writing a novel, 00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.000 and I think it's a great book, 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.000 but she disappears for hours on end. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.000 You know this, if you're doing something you love, 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:07.000 an hour feels like five minutes. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:09.000 If you're doing something that doesn't resonate with your spirit, 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.000 five minutes feels like an hour. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:14.000 And the reason so many people are opting out of education 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.000 is because it doesn't feed their spirit, 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:19.000 it doesn't feed their energy or their passion. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:22.000 So I think we have to change metaphors. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:25.000 We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.000 a manufacturing model, 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:29.000 which is based on linearity 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:32.000 and conformity and batching people. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 We have to move to a model 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.000 that is based more on principles of agriculture. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 We have to recognize that human flourishing 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000 is not a mechanical process; 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.000 it's an organic process. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:47.000 And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.000 All you can do, like a farmer, 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.000 is create the conditions under which 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 they will begin to flourish. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.000 So when we look at reforming education and transforming it, 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:59.000 it isn't like cloning a system. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:01.000 There are great ones, like KIPP's; it's a great system. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:03.000 There are many great models. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.000 It's about customizing to your circumstances 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.000 and personalizing education 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.000 to the people you're actually teaching. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.000 And doing that, I think, 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.000 is the answer to the future 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:17.000 because it's not about scaling a new solution; 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:19.000 it's about creating a movement in education 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:22.000 in which people develop their own solutions, 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:25.000 but with external support based on a personalized curriculum. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.000 Now in this room, 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:29.000 there are people who represent 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:31.000 extraordinary resources in business, 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.000 in multimedia, in the Internet. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:35.000 These technologies, 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:38.000 combined with the extraordinary talents of teachers, 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:41.000 provide an opportunity to revolutionize education. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:43.000 And I urge you to get involved in it 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:45.000 because it's vital, not just to ourselves, 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.000 but to the future of our children. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:49.000 But we have to change from the industrial model 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.000 to an agricultural model, 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:54.000 where each school can be flourishing tomorrow. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.000 That's where children experience life. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.000 Or at home, if that's where they choose to be educated 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.000 with their families or their friends. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.000 There's been a lot of talk about dreams 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.000 over the course of this few days. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.000 And I wanted to just very quickly ... 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.000 I was very struck by Natalie Merchant's songs last night, 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.000 recovering old poems. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.000 I wanted to read you a quick, very short poem 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.000 from W. B. Yeats, who some of you may know. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:19.000 He wrote this to his love, 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:21.000 Maud Gonne, 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:24.000 and he was bewailing the fact that 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:27.000 he couldn't really give her what he thought she wanted from him. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:30.000 And he says, "I've got something else, but it may not be for you." NOTE Paragraph 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:32.000 He says this: 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:35.000 "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.000 Enwrought with gold 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.000 and silver light, 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.000 The blue and the dim 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.000 and the dark cloths 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.000 Of night and light and the half-light, 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:49.000 I would spread the cloths under your feet: 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:52.000 But I, being poor, 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:55.000 have only my dreams; 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:58.000 I have spread my dreams under your feet; 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:00.000 Tread softly 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.000 because you tread on my dreams." 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.000 And every day, everywhere, 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:09.000 our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:12.000 And we should tread softly. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:14.000 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:31.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:33.000 Thank you very much.