Let students keep their wings | Lara Matossian-Roberts | TEDxWinchesterTeachers

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

Lara Matossian-Roberts is passionate about the performing arts. She writes, acts, and directs for the stage and sings and dances on it too. Lara is a professional mime artist, is on the Dubai Drama Group committee and is the coordinator for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature Fringe's adult performances.

A child is born like a butterfly
emerging from its chrysalis

with bright, wide wings ready to fly

and we clip them.

The child wants to wander, and play;

touch and explore;

run, and feel, and squeal
with the joy of discovery.

We stifle, we mold,

we define, and we scold.

The child still,
wants to wander, and play;

touch and explore;

run, and feel, and squeal
with the joy of discovery.

We persist, we cage,

and we test, we label.

But in our minds,
we form the perfect young soul

to grow up, and go out into the world,

to be successful with that nine to five

because that's the only way it's done.

What's a butterfly without its wings?

It can't fly.

What's a mummified butterfly?

Its bright wings spread;

it looks alive, but it's dead.

Framed and impressive, but dead.

A child, now all grown up, dead inside.

Stifled, molded, defined, and scolded.

Caged, and tested, and labeled.

But successful in our minds.

Yet, there's a dead child inside.

A child, like a butterfly,

that could have spread
its bright, wide wings

to fly, to live like a butterfly.

Our students are our butterflies.

Let them fly.

(Cheers) (Applause)