Problems at school | Santiago Aranguri | TEDxRíodelaPlataED

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

What would happen at school if instead of learning what we have to learn, we learn what we want to learn? Santiago Aranguri, only 14 years old, tells us all he learned while he was doing an application to look for missing persons. In cooperation with the NGO "Personas Perdidas", he developed a platform to help search for missing people, creating the necessary tools to achieve their prompt identification. He is a math riddle enthusiast and an active participant of national and international Mathematical Olympiads.

I love programming
since I was a little boy,

and I always wanted to learn a lot.

At school I was learning a little,

but I wanted to learn
more things and faster.

Almost by chance, I had an experience

that sped up my whole
learning process incredibly.

Let me tell you a story.

My father is a firefighter.

At home, we talk about solidarity
and how to help other people.

One day, my father came home
a little shocked by the subject,

and told me he heard that in Argentina

every day, one person goes missing.

"How come one person
goes missing each day?"

"Yes, one person goes missing,
and can't be found by their family,

and they are desperate and anxious."

There I thought that maybe, I could do
something with my passion, programming,

to help solve this problem.

And then, I came up with an idea
for a smartphone application

because almost all of us have one,

and thus I could create
a network of people

connected through this application

that helps find missing people.

So, when someone is missing,
we warn the whole network about it,

and we have a lot of people
looking for them everywhere.

And it's a lot easier and faster
to find them this way.

To accomplish that
I programmed for many months.

It's not that easy because there are
a lot of problems to take care of,

and I didn't know how to do
some things at first.

I went to a workshop
after school, as well,

that helped me a lot with programming
at the beginning.

And, some months ago, I started talking
to a NGO that deals with this.

In fact, it's called "Missing Persons."

And I showed them this application
I created, and they loved it!

Together, we saw what it was needed
to be improved and changed.

In fact, I have the pleasure
to announce that since last week,

it's online as the official application
to search for missing people in Argentina.

The application I could develop
in my free time.

(Applause)

During the last months, I learned
a lot about programming.

Maybe the same I could have learned
during my many years at school.

And not only that: I also learned
about missing persons,

about how to work with a NGO,
and how to ask for help.

And I realized that I learned all this
because I had the idea in my head

that I wanted to solve this problem.

But to dare to do it was not that easy.

At first, I stumbled upon
a lot of prejudices

such as I was very young,
it was very difficult,

or that I would waste my time.

In brief, that I couldn't do it.

So, what did I need to start?

First, I needed a problem
to be really motivated.

For example, before this,
I was creating an application

to organize football games
between friends.

But the truth is organizing
football games is not something

that motivates me that much.

Then, I heard about the problem
of the missing persons.

And in this case it wouldn't be
the same for me if I could solve it or not

it was something I needed to solve.

So, without much thought,
I started to get involved

into the world of learning by doing.

Where you don't know
how to do what you want to do.

You have never learned or been taught
about it, but you want to do it.

So, you use all the tools
you have to try to do it.

And if it still doesn't work,
you keep on trying

because you want to do it.

This led me to the second thing I needed,
which was access to information.

And today this is available:
you just need access to the Internet.

I watched tutorials for hours and hours

to learn what I needed to know.

And I also visited thousand
websites on programming

to answer my questions.

And finally, it seems that when
you talk about learning this way

you learn by yourself,
but it's not like that.

In fact, in this process there were
many people who helped me a lot.

Each time I had a question
or didn't know how to do something,

they helped me solve it.

They also helped me
get in contact with people,

get organized and learn that mistakes
are part of the learning process.

This happened for a year.

At the beginning, I knew almost nothing,

and had to do very complicated
things for this project.

And now, after going
through this experience

of trying to do something
without knowing how,

I can see that all I know
on this subject I learned it this way.

And I did it out of school requirements.

I wonder if it has to be this way.

I'm interested in programming
since I was young, well, younger,

and in my family, helping others
is always present and concerns us.

For me, creating this application
in my free time came naturally,

but there are a lot of kids who perhaps

are interested in other things.

What would happen if we created
a space for them in our schools

so each of them could try
to solve a problem

that matters and interests him a lot.

And almost without realizing it,
to learn a lot in the process.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)