thoughts and ideas with others your
peers your teachers or even your boss in
times of stress when we need most to
communicate effectively to be understood
it can feel like our words abandon us
and how might that feel for a child
trying to make sense of learning we all
have that one common shared experience
of once being a child and today I will
share with you my own experience as a
child going to school working in schools
and ultimately creating a new solution
for children to learn now most of us
come into this world kicking and
screaming and have no problem getting
the things that we need or want what
happens along the way how do we lose
that way are these natural rites of
passage or something that happens in our
experience at school school has had a
magnetic hold on my own life I’ve spent
31 years in schools and as a child over
time I became a little afraid to share
my ideas because I didn’t want to give
the wrong idea
and more often than not the questions
that were asked of me didn’t fit the way
that I thought about things but I
learned how to follow the rules and the
expectations and every day I would go to
school hang up my jacket hang up my
backpack go to my desk pull out my book
write down the date and I would wonder
teacher do you see me as adults we know
that teachers can see their students all
day long but when you’re a child it’s
easy to feel lost and invisible and seek
just a moment of recognition in your
teachers eyes now I’m going to take you
back to a day in 1984 I loved school I
loved my teachers I recognized that
these were humans that could have been
anything that they wanted to be but they
were here helping me learn and I was
grateful on this day
nineteen eighty-four our teacher giving
us an assignment she asked what do you
know about grasshoppers and the twist
was we had to write in cursive writing
when I returned to my desk and looked at
this blank page I envisioned my words in
cursive and to me it looked like they’d
be bowing to the reader and I didn’t
want my words to bow
I wanted my words to stand up tall and
be proud and happy then I envisioned
writing in cursive straight up and down
and I recognized that some words would
stand or some letters would stand taller
than others
and I didn’t want that either I wanted
my letters to feel equal how was I going
to solve this problem I decided to turn
my cursive in the complete opposite
direction and I wrote out the first line
my letters slanting backwards and to me
it looked like a party these words were
limb bowing on to the page they looked
happy and joyful
I felt happy inside I committed to the
style of writing all the way through
handed in my assignment and a few days
later our teacher called us to the front
of the classroom we sat in rows in front
of her what I remember is she was in a
real hurry to hand out these papers but
when she got to mind she paused and a
million thoughts went through my mind
what is she gonna say will she tell
everybody how neat my writing was will
she tell us how much she enjoyed reading
my work well I saw her lift the paper
and at the same time her eyebrows
started to bunch together she said this
is the most bizarre writing I’ve ever
seen and handed it to the person in
front of me before I can even get my
paper that paper was taken out of that
person’s arms and now my paper was going
left to right and there was laughter and
wide-eyed curiosity I had no words my
paper had turned into a fallen kite
getting tangled up in trees in the
branches of the arms that were my peers
they teacher never asked me why but I
don’t think I would have even been able
to explain why in that moment and I
wasn’t willing to cry I didn’t want to
be that kid that cried at school but if
I had cried my teacher would have known
something was wrong how can we expect
our teachers to know something is wrong
when the child isn’t willing to indicate
this is what I hoped my thoughts and
ideas could do and this is what happened
I closed down that path the one that was
most familiar in my mind the one that
allowed me to be imaginative and free I
realized this is gonna get me in trouble
and they didn’t want to get in trouble
now I did all right in schools I
followed the directions I kept up with
the expectations the teachers
consistently reported that I was a
polite kind thoughtful child I had a
loving and supportive family and had a
best friend that understood me even when
I had no words but ultimately I wanted
to understand what made humans thrive so
after I graduated high school and went
off to university and I learned about
Piaget Piaget was scientists biologists
and psychologists and he said something
that was just so painfully obvious but a
real eye-opener at that time kids think
differently it’s not that they’re not
able to think they just go about it in a
different way this was something that
really hit home for me he also said that
the fundamental purpose of schools was
to create men and women that could
create new things not merely repeat what
had been done in generations before he
also advised that with clay is how
anything new comes about so after I
finished University I ended up right
back in schools again and it paid really
close attention my first assignments was
as an urgent interventionist which was a
six-week problem-solving assignment
which turned into a 14-year stay and
during those years I pay careful and
close attention to how a child arrived
at school how they received the
worksheets how they did or did not
answer the questions and I looked to see
if those eyes reflected hope despair or
indifference if my algebra teacher had
told me life was going to be all about
solving the unknown variables I might
have paid closer attention during class
but as it was what he was teaching I
couldn’t make much sense of which meant
that I didn’t know where to put it in my
brain but during my time in the schools
I realized that there’s something about
school that seems really unfair to a
developing child what is it it’s hard to
pinpoint but something about the system
doesn’t seem fair they began to pay
closer attention to the whys when a
child asks why do I have to learn this
it’s sir cuz they’re trying to figure
something out something’s not coming
together for them when a child asks why
and that Y is met with because they’re
not able to make the connection so I
listened for those Y’s I tried to
understand what is it that the kids
aren’t getting and how could I help how
could I minimize that impact knowledge
which is acquired under compulsion
obtains no hold on the mind Plato I
recognize that the issues surrounding
schools are complex and there are
dedicated caring committed humans all
around the world working to try and
solve this the solution I’m putting
forward is based on four truths one
you can’t force learning to nor can you
demand someone’s attention and expect to
sustain it three
a child that has not known respect has
none to spare or this thing inside the
child’s brain or inside the child’s head
the brain belongs to the child and if we
want children to develop a good
relationship with their brain which will
impact what they think they can and
can’t do in life we need to help them
understand some things that aren’t so
transparent in schools if the ultimate
goal of life is to get to
problem-solving then we need to
understand how ideas and inspiration
work we need to see how idea is an
inspiration affect communication we need
to understand the role emotions play in
all of this and also we need to
understand learning not everybody learns
the same way so conversation creates
transparency conversation makes the
children part of the dialogue that
shapes their experience of school they
are given the tools and the concepts
they got to play with it they get to
work it out themselves they put it
together they break it apart they help
each other understand these characters
from my imagination how names joy
compassion and creativity conversation
is the peaceful exchange of thoughts and
ideas now over this past spring we did
some prototype testing in different
classrooms in schools across Vancouver
different grade levels as well the day
the results started coming in I gave
myself a mission to cry because it
worked not only did we meet our
objectives in the eyes of the children
we had exceeded our objectives purpose
and value our objective was to help
children learn how to communicate their
ideas in a way that others would
understand and give them confidence and
vice versa
how they could take in other people’s
ideas
ninety six point eight percent of the
children felt that we met the objective
they were able to communicate their
eighty-seven point one percent of the
children said yes they had developed a
better understanding of themselves their
peers and their teachers a ninety six
point eight percent of the children felt
that all schools should have
conversation we were filling a gap we
were giving the kids something that they
didn’t have before now this was the very
first class to kick off the testing and
prototype test missus McClanahan’s class
is a grade four or five plus and I got
to spend some extra time with some
because they were also the first ones to
finish I ran a hypothetical scenario
past the children because I wanted to
really understand what the value was for
them I asked what if only 50% of schools
got conversation what would happen they
looked at me perplexed like how can you
even do that but ultimately they were
able to give me some answers and one
student said I think that the children
that didn’t get conversation they’d just
be too stressed out to learn anything
and another offered the ones who didn’t
get conversation well they’d just be
lost in life and a third one said the
ones who do get conversation they
wouldn’t keep it a secret from others
they chair it I believe
children carry within them a set of
wishes and these wishes turn into ideas
and these ideas over time guide their
actions not always obvious to the
observer these wishes are so beautiful
but sometimes can’t yet pre explained
and some of these wishes if you knew
would break your heart I see you you
matter I see you you matter
I see you you matter this is how the
conversation begins the human in me sees
the human in you most of my life I’ve
kept my thoughts and ideas to myself
well once you leap and land on the other
side of what’s possible for children for
education for Humanity you realize that
taking the leap was never optional
everything in life was leading you
towards it
and it takes courage to jump into the
because sometimes what comes across as
bizarre is a beautiful idea waiting to
blossom let’s work together to take the
fear out of learning thank you [Applause]