I don’t have to stand in front here
don’t know I’m good here hi everyone my
name is Mitchell Chuvalo I have been a
teacher a coach and an educator for some
thirty years a long time I’m glad I’m
having the opportunity tonight to talk
to you about the power of transformation
in young people and what distinguishes
change from transformation and what
Trent would change what differentiates
transformation from metamorphosis there
I got it I think there’s a formula that
you can employ that will assist that
change it happened with me it’s happened
to other people in my life and happens
with students I teach every single day
so let’s just go back for a second to
the fact that you know there are seven
billion people in the world and if we
are fortunate enough and lucky enough we
all get to be an adolescent if the
conditions are right each one of us at
that time starts to form an identity and
our identity is based on our experiences
and that’s quite normal but it’s an
incomplete identity but it’s a very
particular identity to our own
experience and when that happens we
oftentimes come into conflict with other
people I have an identity but they don’t
share the same perspective that we have
because we have particular eyes
experiences and particular eyes their
identities what happens then when those
two things conflict right there’s an
angsty eight it there’s a problem and
what we do very naturally is we turn to
philosophy and a very specific type of
philosophy that philosophy is called
axiology or value theory and kids
naturally do this all the time think
about young kids all the time when this
happens they are in deep distress and
you can hear the young girl’s voice
right now that’s not fair that’s not
fair I should have just as much as
he or she has that’s not right that’s
not equal kids do it all the time
they’re natural philosophers which is an
interesting thing because they don’t
quite yet have the lexicon to work out
bigger problems but there is an
understanding that they will use
axiology at some point of their in their
framework to get around argumentation
with other people who also have a very
personalised identity now my kids do
this all the time I have two boys 111
and 113 and they argue over the ps4 all
the time you know a ps4 for those who
you know all know what a ps4 is they dad
he’s been on for 20 minutes I only got
18 minutes son why are you arguing over
two minutes in fact you’ve been arguing
for the last 10 minutes over two minutes
in an act of generosity and kindness
wouldn’t it have been better wouldn’t
have been the better value to employer
and let your brother have that extra two
minutes without worrying about it no dad
that’s not how the that’s not the way
the world works in fact it is the way
the world works because everything we do
in our lives every single thing we do
admits of a deeper value structure a
deeper value Laden act and I can tell
you that by just looking out at you
tonight we’re here having a TEDx talk
TEDx obviously values people in the
community coming together and talking I
think that’s a good thing the shoes I
wore tonight you know I think I look
pretty good in these shoes I decided you
know aesthetically they look good out of
me I’ll make a decision to wear those is
jacket my buddy got for me that looks
fantastic I’ll put that on why not all
right everything has an underlying value
structure the food I eat tonight will
say something about my value my value
system transportation I take home we’ll
say something about my value system so
I’m of the belief that values guide
everything we do in our lives although
my sons disagree now I talked about
particularization of your experience in
your identity as a limiting condition
and I have to be very careful here we
want individuals with varied perspective
we want people to have differing
viewpoints we want people to express
their lives personally and very
concretely as its differentiated from
other people however yeah well let me go
back especially because so many people
have been left out of the conversation
people who have been marginalized people
of color women people in the LGBTQ
community people I just saw the slide up
there which threw me off
not yet people who are poor who haven’t
had access to education all those
people’s voices have been marginalized
and I don’t want to doubt down play the
importance of listening to those voices
however regardless of your situation
it’s super important that you understand
that your personal experience is a
limiting condition it’s limiting
condition and what I’m arguing for is
you have to look at the world in a
bigger framework you have to see things
more in their broadest scope in their
broadest scope possible now that’s not a
new idea a lot of philosophers have said
that before you want to will your
actions to be universal and when they
become universal you act on behalf of
everyone in the world and I think that’s
a fabulous thing now what does that
actually look like in human experience
well I’m going to take you back to come
on there we go I’m going to take you
back a long time ago before you were
born most of you five years before I was
born to 1954 and imagine the town of
Louisville Kentucky in 1954 and what I
want you to imagine in your mind’s eye I
want to see wants you to see a young boy
on a red Schwinn bike a beautiful new
red Schwinn bike got it for his birthday
I think and he was riding it through the
through the streets of Louisville
Kentucky and he goes to a local
auditorium where he goes to see a show
and he foolishly leaves his bike outside
the auditorium comes back out after the
show
and of course the bike is gone
and he’s firecracker red he’s hot he’s
screaming and yelling I’m gonna whip
that individual when I catch that young
person I’m going to I’m going to hit
them I’m going to punch them out
he’s going into hysterics something that
would actually serve him later in life
someone says to him there’s a cop
downstairs and about in the basement of
the auditorium why don’t you go talk to
him he goes downstairs and in the
basement of the auditorium is an old
police officer his name’s Joe Martin and
Joe Martin says what do you want to beat
someone up worth they stole my bike he
says well do you know how to beat people
up smart old cop do you know how to beat
people up yeah I’ll kill him I’ll kill
him he says well I run a boxing club
here why don’t you come to the boxing
club and we’ll teach you how to fight so
the young man the next day shows up at
the boxing club and he starts to box
wild frantic angered and then all of a
sudden he starts to learn starts to
learn how to box and put his punches
together and it becomes pretty good at
it he becomes very good at it in fact he
wins six Golden Glove championships
amateur championships in Kentucky and
he’s good enough to represent the United
States at the Rome Olympics in 1960 and
heavyweight division beautiful
transformation of all that anger that
misplaced anger it gets transformed into
an athletic skill he gets to travel and
see the world I’m down to a minute 58
woven area he gets to see the world
he becomes a local hero and brings his
gold medal home to Central High School
in Louisville Kentucky his name is
Cassius Clay
most of people to know who he later
became I love that picture because it’s
so joyous everybody in the local
community expressing such joy over his
accomplishments but there’s another
story to that picture 1960s
Kentucky he went out with his friends to
celebrate afterward and he was refused
service because he was black and
segregation in the United States was
still very strong in the Jim Crow laws
allowed for Sep supposedly equal but
separate public areas like in train
stations like in restaurants so upset
was he at this so upset was he that he
takes it reportedly takes the medal from
around his neck and throws it into the
ohio river starts reading about and
becoming interested in civil rights
issues meets an individual by the name
of Malcolm X maybe the leading civil
rights advocate in the time in the
United States along with Martin Luther
King and they decide to confirm become
friends to the point where this
individual cassius clay becomes Muhammad
Ali four years later he becomes the
heavyweight championship of the world
declares his being Islamic to the rest
of America and goes on to be not only a
fabulous fighter but probably probably
the apotheosis of
social justice warrior of the 20th
century the apotheosis of a social
justice warrior and that’s why he was so
famous and loved he was loved not only
because it was boxing but it was also
loved because of the things that
appealed to he appealed to in a broader
context beyond boxing so some of you
might know my father also a professional
fighter fought Muhammad Ali twice I’ve
had an opportunity to have an audience
with Muhammad Ali and the interesting
thing about Ali was that he had mentors
in his life to enlargen and broaden his
perspective they gave him a wider range
of thought experience in action I often
think what I’d love to have been a fly
on the wall when the young Cassius Lake
ain’t clay came into the basement and
started furiously hitting the bag and
the wise old cop got him to settle down
and transformed
into an athletic skill I would have
loved him in a fly on the wall when
ollie upset about not being served in
his hometown being a second-class
citizen in his own hometown after
throwing away his gold medal I would
have loved to been a fly on the wall to
listen to Malcolm X talk about the
adjust in justices in the American in
the in American society especially as
they related to minorities that would
have been a fabulous thing and to watch
that metamorphosis happen but like my
father fought with them twice
interestingly the two vicious fights
Muhammad called my father the toughest
man he had ever fought up to that time
and they remained friends long after and
up until Mohammed’s death recently and I
always thought the boxing hitting people
in the head is a strange way to make
friends but they eventually became
friends so what does this have to do
with me like my father I was trained to
be an athlete and I was pretty good
athlete in a multitude of sports but
sport I love most was football and I
became a football player at Florida
State University in fact I was at
offered six different scholarship offers
to go to the United States in the 1970s
that’s pretty that was pretty heady
stuff for a Canadian athlete back then
and I chose Florida State University
where I had a first good first year but
in the offseason I hurt myself because I
was an overzealous trainer trying to
live up to the reputation of my dad I
did I did way too much anyway I hurt my
knee in the offseason and it was
misdiagnosed never this was the time
when there were no MRIs there were no
laser surgery and my knee was
misdiagnosed my knee injury was
misdiagnosed and I continued to train on
it such the point where I hurt my other
knee so upset I left Florida State
University enrolled at the University of
Guelph and a Guelph I was initially
depressed because what happened to me my
the particular ization of my identity
and my experience was I was a failure I
was never going to live up to the
athletic potential that I thought I had
and others thought I had and I was
pretty depressed for about a year until
Monday I walked into a classroom
it’s called selected topics in
philosophy philosophy of education and
on the board
there was a professor I’ll talk about
him in a minute
was this on the board remember the old
chalkboard this in the nineteenth this
is 1979 I think it says to educate is to
cause to grow X causes Y to grow if and
only if and to the extent that it
enables a more coherently extensive
range of thought experience and action
and that hit me like a laser that was my
metamorphosis moment how could I get out
of my own identity and view the world in
a much broader context
well I now had a formula to do it I
walked I know I didn’t walk into that
classroom I limped into that classroom
and I flew home all the way home the
concept of axiology and value kept
folding into and onto each other I was
going I became extremely excited about
learning the lexicon I’m talking about
value and it gave my life meaning
talking about meaning talking about
value gave my life value as the thing I
don’t think we do enough with children
today we allude to it kind of but we
don’t talk about it in depth and I think
it’s keen critical that we do it just
oops just as an aside my professor in
that course John McMurtry still a
lifelong friend of mine probably the
leading axial logical scholar in the
world no I was lucky enough to strike up
a friendship with him most recently he
wrote the history of philosophy for the
United Nations for UNESCO a mind I had
access to that mind he gave me that that
confidence to get beyond my own personal
experience to get out of the angst of my
particularization Headey particularized
me and he gave me a huge value system
that i use every day I see things in the
broadest context so I don’t get mired in
the small things in life John is one of
the Lords of my life I can still talk to
him he’s my mentor I encourage all young
people to get a mentor like that someone
who has a broader range of thought
experience of action it’s going to be
keen critical to your develop
he saved my life in a lot of ways and I
thought and I’m thankful to him I could
talk to him but anything how many people
do you have in life that you can talk to
about anything nothing is taboo I’m
lucky to have that in my life what does
that mean in my everyday practice to be
able to look at the world in the
broadest scope broadest range of thought
experience in action to look at the
world so that every action I partake in
should be an action that everyone else
partakes in well it informs me as an
educator because kids love to talk about
values it informs me as a parent because
my kids are increasingly getting used to
my talking about values as a lover of
life itself it allows me to enjoy things
on a much deeper level but it’s a
difficult thing to do at times because
people get mired in their own particular
aesthetic system right and I’ve taught
at UTS here which is a high achieving
school of great kids thoughtful kids but
I’ve taught in four other schools and I
still lay awake at night at 3 a.m. and
that 3 a.m. stillness and I think about
five students I’m coming into contact at
other schools who were murdered and five
students that I have come in contact
with either directly or indirectly at
schools who killed someone and I’m
convinced that if they had the lexicon
of value theory and axiology if they
could have thought or learned to a
thought or learned to even begin to
think outside their own tragic
particular particular vision of the
world if they could have done that
things might have been very different
for them even in my own life that’s a
picture of myself and my three brothers
I am the second from the left at the top
my brother Georgie below is my brother
Jesse to the right is my brother Steve
and they were unable to get beyond the
angst of their particularization
all three of them all three of them died
either directly or indirectly due to
narcotics use they couldn’t do it they
didn’t get a chance to go to university
then get a chance to broaden their
thought experience in action
my sister Vanessa and I did and we’re
living testament to how important it is
to people I want to thank you very much
for listening to me tonight I really
loved the TEDx forum because what it
does is it takes analysis and brings
people together with them to bring
people together and it connects it to
people and that’s really important
because thought unless it’s shared isn’t
really knowledge and if you don’t
connect it to people it’s not meaningful
I want to thank you love to you all
take care
[Applause]
don’t know I’m good here hi everyone my
name is Mitchell Chuvalo I have been a
teacher a coach and an educator for some
thirty years a long time I’m glad I’m
having the opportunity tonight to talk
to you about the power of transformation
in young people and what distinguishes
change from transformation and what
Trent would change what differentiates
transformation from metamorphosis there
I got it I think there’s a formula that
you can employ that will assist that
change it happened with me it’s happened
to other people in my life and happens
with students I teach every single day
so let’s just go back for a second to
the fact that you know there are seven
billion people in the world and if we
are fortunate enough and lucky enough we
all get to be an adolescent if the
conditions are right each one of us at
that time starts to form an identity and
our identity is based on our experiences
and that’s quite normal but it’s an
incomplete identity but it’s a very
particular identity to our own
experience and when that happens we
oftentimes come into conflict with other
people I have an identity but they don’t
share the same perspective that we have
because we have particular eyes
experiences and particular eyes their
identities what happens then when those
two things conflict right there’s an
angsty eight it there’s a problem and
what we do very naturally is we turn to
philosophy and a very specific type of
philosophy that philosophy is called
axiology or value theory and kids
naturally do this all the time think
about young kids all the time when this
happens they are in deep distress and
you can hear the young girl’s voice
right now that’s not fair that’s not
fair I should have just as much as
he or she has that’s not right that’s
not equal kids do it all the time
they’re natural philosophers which is an
interesting thing because they don’t
quite yet have the lexicon to work out
bigger problems but there is an
understanding that they will use
axiology at some point of their in their
framework to get around argumentation
with other people who also have a very
personalised identity now my kids do
this all the time I have two boys 111
and 113 and they argue over the ps4 all
the time you know a ps4 for those who
you know all know what a ps4 is they dad
he’s been on for 20 minutes I only got
18 minutes son why are you arguing over
two minutes in fact you’ve been arguing
for the last 10 minutes over two minutes
in an act of generosity and kindness
wouldn’t it have been better wouldn’t
have been the better value to employer
and let your brother have that extra two
minutes without worrying about it no dad
that’s not how the that’s not the way
the world works in fact it is the way
the world works because everything we do
in our lives every single thing we do
admits of a deeper value structure a
deeper value Laden act and I can tell
you that by just looking out at you
tonight we’re here having a TEDx talk
TEDx obviously values people in the
community coming together and talking I
think that’s a good thing the shoes I
wore tonight you know I think I look
pretty good in these shoes I decided you
know aesthetically they look good out of
me I’ll make a decision to wear those is
jacket my buddy got for me that looks
fantastic I’ll put that on why not all
right everything has an underlying value
structure the food I eat tonight will
say something about my value my value
system transportation I take home we’ll
say something about my value system so
I’m of the belief that values guide
everything we do in our lives although
my sons disagree now I talked about
particularization of your experience in
your identity as a limiting condition
and I have to be very careful here we
want individuals with varied perspective
we want people to have differing
viewpoints we want people to express
their lives personally and very
concretely as its differentiated from
other people however yeah well let me go
back especially because so many people
have been left out of the conversation
people who have been marginalized people
of color women people in the LGBTQ
community people I just saw the slide up
there which threw me off
not yet people who are poor who haven’t
had access to education all those
people’s voices have been marginalized
and I don’t want to doubt down play the
importance of listening to those voices
however regardless of your situation
it’s super important that you understand
that your personal experience is a
limiting condition it’s limiting
condition and what I’m arguing for is
you have to look at the world in a
bigger framework you have to see things
more in their broadest scope in their
broadest scope possible now that’s not a
new idea a lot of philosophers have said
that before you want to will your
actions to be universal and when they
become universal you act on behalf of
everyone in the world and I think that’s
a fabulous thing now what does that
actually look like in human experience
well I’m going to take you back to come
on there we go I’m going to take you
back a long time ago before you were
born most of you five years before I was
born to 1954 and imagine the town of
Louisville Kentucky in 1954 and what I
want you to imagine in your mind’s eye I
want to see wants you to see a young boy
on a red Schwinn bike a beautiful new
red Schwinn bike got it for his birthday
I think and he was riding it through the
through the streets of Louisville
Kentucky and he goes to a local
auditorium where he goes to see a show
and he foolishly leaves his bike outside
the auditorium comes back out after the
show
and of course the bike is gone
and he’s firecracker red he’s hot he’s
screaming and yelling I’m gonna whip
that individual when I catch that young
person I’m going to I’m going to hit
them I’m going to punch them out
he’s going into hysterics something that
would actually serve him later in life
someone says to him there’s a cop
downstairs and about in the basement of
the auditorium why don’t you go talk to
him he goes downstairs and in the
basement of the auditorium is an old
police officer his name’s Joe Martin and
Joe Martin says what do you want to beat
someone up worth they stole my bike he
says well do you know how to beat people
up smart old cop do you know how to beat
people up yeah I’ll kill him I’ll kill
him he says well I run a boxing club
here why don’t you come to the boxing
club and we’ll teach you how to fight so
the young man the next day shows up at
the boxing club and he starts to box
wild frantic angered and then all of a
sudden he starts to learn starts to
learn how to box and put his punches
together and it becomes pretty good at
it he becomes very good at it in fact he
wins six Golden Glove championships
amateur championships in Kentucky and
he’s good enough to represent the United
States at the Rome Olympics in 1960 and
heavyweight division beautiful
transformation of all that anger that
misplaced anger it gets transformed into
an athletic skill he gets to travel and
see the world I’m down to a minute 58
woven area he gets to see the world
he becomes a local hero and brings his
gold medal home to Central High School
in Louisville Kentucky his name is
Cassius Clay
most of people to know who he later
became I love that picture because it’s
so joyous everybody in the local
community expressing such joy over his
accomplishments but there’s another
story to that picture 1960s
Kentucky he went out with his friends to
celebrate afterward and he was refused
service because he was black and
segregation in the United States was
still very strong in the Jim Crow laws
allowed for Sep supposedly equal but
separate public areas like in train
stations like in restaurants so upset
was he at this so upset was he that he
takes it reportedly takes the medal from
around his neck and throws it into the
ohio river starts reading about and
becoming interested in civil rights
issues meets an individual by the name
of Malcolm X maybe the leading civil
rights advocate in the time in the
United States along with Martin Luther
King and they decide to confirm become
friends to the point where this
individual cassius clay becomes Muhammad
Ali four years later he becomes the
heavyweight championship of the world
declares his being Islamic to the rest
of America and goes on to be not only a
fabulous fighter but probably probably
the apotheosis of
social justice warrior of the 20th
century the apotheosis of a social
justice warrior and that’s why he was so
famous and loved he was loved not only
because it was boxing but it was also
loved because of the things that
appealed to he appealed to in a broader
context beyond boxing so some of you
might know my father also a professional
fighter fought Muhammad Ali twice I’ve
had an opportunity to have an audience
with Muhammad Ali and the interesting
thing about Ali was that he had mentors
in his life to enlargen and broaden his
perspective they gave him a wider range
of thought experience in action I often
think what I’d love to have been a fly
on the wall when the young Cassius Lake
ain’t clay came into the basement and
started furiously hitting the bag and
the wise old cop got him to settle down
and transformed
into an athletic skill I would have
loved him in a fly on the wall when
ollie upset about not being served in
his hometown being a second-class
citizen in his own hometown after
throwing away his gold medal I would
have loved to been a fly on the wall to
listen to Malcolm X talk about the
adjust in justices in the American in
the in American society especially as
they related to minorities that would
have been a fabulous thing and to watch
that metamorphosis happen but like my
father fought with them twice
interestingly the two vicious fights
Muhammad called my father the toughest
man he had ever fought up to that time
and they remained friends long after and
up until Mohammed’s death recently and I
always thought the boxing hitting people
in the head is a strange way to make
friends but they eventually became
friends so what does this have to do
with me like my father I was trained to
be an athlete and I was pretty good
athlete in a multitude of sports but
sport I love most was football and I
became a football player at Florida
State University in fact I was at
offered six different scholarship offers
to go to the United States in the 1970s
that’s pretty that was pretty heady
stuff for a Canadian athlete back then
and I chose Florida State University
where I had a first good first year but
in the offseason I hurt myself because I
was an overzealous trainer trying to
live up to the reputation of my dad I
did I did way too much anyway I hurt my
knee in the offseason and it was
misdiagnosed never this was the time
when there were no MRIs there were no
laser surgery and my knee was
misdiagnosed my knee injury was
misdiagnosed and I continued to train on
it such the point where I hurt my other
knee so upset I left Florida State
University enrolled at the University of
Guelph and a Guelph I was initially
depressed because what happened to me my
the particular ization of my identity
and my experience was I was a failure I
was never going to live up to the
athletic potential that I thought I had
and others thought I had and I was
pretty depressed for about a year until
Monday I walked into a classroom
it’s called selected topics in
philosophy philosophy of education and
on the board
there was a professor I’ll talk about
him in a minute
was this on the board remember the old
chalkboard this in the nineteenth this
is 1979 I think it says to educate is to
cause to grow X causes Y to grow if and
only if and to the extent that it
enables a more coherently extensive
range of thought experience and action
and that hit me like a laser that was my
metamorphosis moment how could I get out
of my own identity and view the world in
a much broader context
well I now had a formula to do it I
walked I know I didn’t walk into that
classroom I limped into that classroom
and I flew home all the way home the
concept of axiology and value kept
folding into and onto each other I was
going I became extremely excited about
learning the lexicon I’m talking about
value and it gave my life meaning
talking about meaning talking about
value gave my life value as the thing I
don’t think we do enough with children
today we allude to it kind of but we
don’t talk about it in depth and I think
it’s keen critical that we do it just
oops just as an aside my professor in
that course John McMurtry still a
lifelong friend of mine probably the
leading axial logical scholar in the
world no I was lucky enough to strike up
a friendship with him most recently he
wrote the history of philosophy for the
United Nations for UNESCO a mind I had
access to that mind he gave me that that
confidence to get beyond my own personal
experience to get out of the angst of my
particularization Headey particularized
me and he gave me a huge value system
that i use every day I see things in the
broadest context so I don’t get mired in
the small things in life John is one of
the Lords of my life I can still talk to
him he’s my mentor I encourage all young
people to get a mentor like that someone
who has a broader range of thought
experience of action it’s going to be
keen critical to your develop
he saved my life in a lot of ways and I
thought and I’m thankful to him I could
talk to him but anything how many people
do you have in life that you can talk to
about anything nothing is taboo I’m
lucky to have that in my life what does
that mean in my everyday practice to be
able to look at the world in the
broadest scope broadest range of thought
experience in action to look at the
world so that every action I partake in
should be an action that everyone else
partakes in well it informs me as an
educator because kids love to talk about
values it informs me as a parent because
my kids are increasingly getting used to
my talking about values as a lover of
life itself it allows me to enjoy things
on a much deeper level but it’s a
difficult thing to do at times because
people get mired in their own particular
aesthetic system right and I’ve taught
at UTS here which is a high achieving
school of great kids thoughtful kids but
I’ve taught in four other schools and I
still lay awake at night at 3 a.m. and
that 3 a.m. stillness and I think about
five students I’m coming into contact at
other schools who were murdered and five
students that I have come in contact
with either directly or indirectly at
schools who killed someone and I’m
convinced that if they had the lexicon
of value theory and axiology if they
could have thought or learned to a
thought or learned to even begin to
think outside their own tragic
particular particular vision of the
world if they could have done that
things might have been very different
for them even in my own life that’s a
picture of myself and my three brothers
I am the second from the left at the top
my brother Georgie below is my brother
Jesse to the right is my brother Steve
and they were unable to get beyond the
angst of their particularization
all three of them all three of them died
either directly or indirectly due to
narcotics use they couldn’t do it they
didn’t get a chance to go to university
then get a chance to broaden their
thought experience in action
my sister Vanessa and I did and we’re
living testament to how important it is
to people I want to thank you very much
for listening to me tonight I really
loved the TEDx forum because what it
does is it takes analysis and brings
people together with them to bring
people together and it connects it to
people and that’s really important
because thought unless it’s shared isn’t
really knowledge and if you don’t
connect it to people it’s not meaningful
I want to thank you love to you all
take care
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: