[Applause]
so when I was a little boy my family and
I moved French countryside and but may
not ask for these amazing fields but I’d
always be cycling around sometimes I go
to the local lake and I don’t collect
tadpoles so that I could have a frog
pond so my childhood was created it was
really adventurous and my thing life was
incredibly my home life was happy the
school was a different story
I hated I felt trapped
I felt oppressed I hated that I had no
choice but to go and once I was there I
had no choice as to what I got to do I
felt like years months weeks days even
hours have all been planned out for me
for the next decades to come with all
this no room for me to be me I remember
in my teens I got a school report back
and he said Jonathan his times hit but
must stop daydreaming or gazing out of
the window and then go when I was a bit
older again I got the results back from
a maths exam and I got the exam and saw
that they’d failed I looked in the paper
and I had every calculation correct so I
asked my teacher why he said mr. Barnes
your calculations are correct but the
so I had to express myself creatively
outside of school for me was sport and I
remember one summer I wanted some new
sports gear so I organized tournaments
and events for my parents customers I
had to sell my ideas and then I had to
accounting collect the money and then I
had to organize and run the events I
also had another question which is a
technology and I’m really lucky because
my parents even on a school night would
let me stay up through the night so that
I could learn to code or design websites
so it felt I run it that school just
felt like such hard work but it was
actually a home that I worked the
hardest and that I learned the most
years went on and I did all the right
things I went to university I got a few
decent jobs but in my mid-twenties I got
really sick and suffered when we’re
really bad about depression
so my mental health was at an all-time
low and that was a life-changing
experience for me I had to learn about
who I was again I went on a long walking
holiday with a friend I taught myself to
meditate and gradually I was back after
a while the kitchen daydreams is engaged
out of the windows was back and it was
not that one as I felt good that I fell
in love in fact as I felt good that I
fell in love twice my amazing wise
girlfriend I didn’t
why’s little boy who’s six at the time
and is our relationship blossoms so did
our family so after a year we decided it
was time for an adventure
so my girlfriend quit her job and I
guess that little boy quit this school
we’ve got three backpacks and went to
Nicaragua for a month and then Costa
Rica for almost six where the nature is
beautiful and hidden in the jungle is a
beautiful little school it’s called Casa
Sula a democratic school there are no
teachers no curriculum no classrooms no
grades and when we’re going there on one
of the first days with our son then the
guide welcomes us and she comes up sick
full of love and says welcome to Casa
now put your bag in her locker and then
you can do what you want so we go to the
lockers he looks at all of the manatee
he says John which lorry should I choose
I said I didn’t want do you think he’s
tell me then he notices in the other
room that there are some children
wearing shoes some wearing flip-flops
and someone wearing shoes at all and he
says John what should I wear I don’t
know what do you think please tell me
then we’re going to take part in a mass
game that they were playing some of the
kids have a paper portrait and some had
it landscape John how should I hold the
paper I don’t know what do you think
John please just tell me but then I then
perhaps my most important lesson in the
trip and it was then in directive
schools there are thousands and
thousands of moments where we steal
autonomy from a child we tell them what
to wear tell them where to sit when to
speak even when to pee every time we do
that we still an opportunity for them to
learn how to learn an opportunity to
make free thinkers we’re in opportunity
fundamentally to become emotionally
resonant
so after a few a few weeks we noticed a
huge change he started coming home and
we would see that he would go to the
fridge and make his own snacks we saw
that he started suggesting all these
activities for us to do he started
asking us what we had been doing with
our day but the main thing we noticed
was that he started walking differently
his shoulders were back he looked down
Lots in the eyes and we realized that he
felt good in his skin
I know it’s so much
on Monday mornings they have what I call
kids Council where I facilitates that we
get the children in the circle and get
them to talk about the things they
wanted to improve about the school and
then to take responsibility over who was
going to implement those improvements
they would learn about democracy by
voting people into positions for the
next week it was organizing lunch for
the riverwalk or the math games I saw
two children have a real argument one
day and the guy instead of separating
them came up and put a hand on each
shoulder it gradually helped them to
enter a dialogue where I guess they
learned a small lesson about conflict
resolution I met a number of children
who taught themselves how to read and
write I really always thought you needed
to teach someone how to make a right it
turns out in the correct creative
comfortable loving environment around
the age of 9 and 10 children start to
teach themselves how to be the right in
fact they do it in a few weeks it
doesn’t take years that it does when you
force in letters to a little child I had
this great story where this one day he
came back from school and my girlfriend
asked him what he’d done with the day he
said Oh today I just lay down in the
hammock chatting to my friend
all day and then she said to me wisely
later on but that was an amazing moment
that he was able without any social
pressure to learn to socialize in his
own way and his own case and I giggled
in my head and I thought the hundreds of
pounds I could have taken therapy if I
had been to a school like that – when we
left we asked him what was different
about this school and he said well that
a normal school they tell me what’s
right and what’s wrong but at this
school I had to think for myself what I
think is right and what I think is wrong
and to think for himself
I know my job is to think about
alternatives to the bigger institutions
of the world the future of democracy is
future of work when it comes to
education I just wanna share three basic
patterns that I see the first is
complexity that’s that we live in a
world that is more complex than ever we
here and the reason is because the
problems of the world are global in
nature today they’re global because
everything is so many connected and that
complexity requires ingenious new
solutions for the world of tomorrow and
those solutions come from creativity in
which luckily is one of a child’s
greatest gifts now the second concern is
that because of this technological
process we’re seeing a change
we see one of our most important
institutions and we’re starting to see
the road a little bit I believe it’s at
a tipping point where it will continue
to erode or create better forms of
democracy than ever before but
fundamentally democracy is about
cooperation and I have now seen that
it’s possible to create environments
where children learn what cooperation
means and I’ve seen so many children who
don’t even share a common language they
kindly with each other perhaps a lesson
that they could teach us a little bit
about sometimes the most important
atomicity
is that this technological progress
starts to work on one of our deepest
fears and that’s the fear of the unknown
the anxiety around the unknown think of
the number of God’s tool these are jobs
in the coming years because of
automation losing the job will hurt but
the uncertainty around what sitting next
that really hurts and the best solution
I’ve seen to this is in two thousand
five hundred year old piece of
that asks us to live in the present
moment when it comes to that and then
they children are our gurus so I see the
world sometimes in ironies and education
is perhaps one of the biggest ones we
want democracy the school is the perfect
simulation of autocracy we have been
uncertainty but this school timetable is
the perfect idea of artificial certain
see weenies creativity but when the bell
goes the workers go back to the factory
in go through their exercises but I’ve
now seen there are alternatives many
alternatives and I’m also glad that I
now have a new job and that job is to
guide the little boy to think for
himself and to be who he wants to be so
we’re currently exploring a blended
model Democratic schooling and unsmooth
and it’s just over the road in a
workspace with some friends who are
like-minded we started to build a work
space that’s for all ages they split
into three areas and recently in a
focused area I was writing my book as my
little boy was reading a novel next to
me in the interactive area my girlfriend
was having workshops and meetings and we
so children who building stuff with Lego
and in the social area we learn to live
with each other every week we have a
meeting where we try to hear everybody’s
needs and improve
the place based on that it’s not easy at
home we learn about maths by calculating
the dimensions for the skateboard that
we’re building you know wants to sell
the skateboard online so maybe we’ll
learn some new skills there but I need
to solve the Rubik’s Cube we understand
what an algorithm is and then our family
meeting every week when we discuss and
negotiate screen time we learn to
compromise thing to cooperate with each
other so my new job is the finest job
that I’ve ever had and like all parents
they didn’t get the manual I have no
idea what I’m doing and I’m constantly
worried that I’m getting it wrong it’s
also the most inspiring job in a few
weeks time my girlfriend and I are
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
and a few weeks ago our son I was laying
with him and he said to me what are you
gonna from this mummy but I said I’ll
promise to support her in following the
treaties anyway
[Music]
and said when you promised that to me –
I said they will I think the problems
that we face in the 21st century are
complex but the skills that we need to
overcome them marinate in children and
there are many different ways than many
of the things we can do to improve the
education system but one thing we can
all do as educators is to bring up the
generation of free-range chickens not
caged hens the best thing we can do is
to set children free I believe the best
thing we can do is to learn to get out
of the way do not interrupt and to just
be with children and if we do that I
think that in the future we’ll look up
to a generation younger than us and be proud
so when I was a little boy my family and
I moved French countryside and but may
not ask for these amazing fields but I’d
always be cycling around sometimes I go
to the local lake and I don’t collect
tadpoles so that I could have a frog
pond so my childhood was created it was
really adventurous and my thing life was
incredibly my home life was happy the
school was a different story
I hated I felt trapped
I felt oppressed I hated that I had no
choice but to go and once I was there I
had no choice as to what I got to do I
felt like years months weeks days even
hours have all been planned out for me
for the next decades to come with all
this no room for me to be me I remember
in my teens I got a school report back
and he said Jonathan his times hit but
must stop daydreaming or gazing out of
the window and then go when I was a bit
older again I got the results back from
a maths exam and I got the exam and saw
that they’d failed I looked in the paper
and I had every calculation correct so I
asked my teacher why he said mr. Barnes
your calculations are correct but the
so I had to express myself creatively
outside of school for me was sport and I
remember one summer I wanted some new
sports gear so I organized tournaments
and events for my parents customers I
had to sell my ideas and then I had to
accounting collect the money and then I
had to organize and run the events I
also had another question which is a
technology and I’m really lucky because
my parents even on a school night would
let me stay up through the night so that
I could learn to code or design websites
so it felt I run it that school just
felt like such hard work but it was
actually a home that I worked the
hardest and that I learned the most
years went on and I did all the right
things I went to university I got a few
decent jobs but in my mid-twenties I got
really sick and suffered when we’re
really bad about depression
so my mental health was at an all-time
low and that was a life-changing
experience for me I had to learn about
who I was again I went on a long walking
holiday with a friend I taught myself to
meditate and gradually I was back after
a while the kitchen daydreams is engaged
out of the windows was back and it was
not that one as I felt good that I fell
in love in fact as I felt good that I
fell in love twice my amazing wise
girlfriend I didn’t
why’s little boy who’s six at the time
and is our relationship blossoms so did
our family so after a year we decided it
was time for an adventure
so my girlfriend quit her job and I
guess that little boy quit this school
we’ve got three backpacks and went to
Nicaragua for a month and then Costa
Rica for almost six where the nature is
beautiful and hidden in the jungle is a
beautiful little school it’s called Casa
Sula a democratic school there are no
teachers no curriculum no classrooms no
grades and when we’re going there on one
of the first days with our son then the
guide welcomes us and she comes up sick
full of love and says welcome to Casa
now put your bag in her locker and then
you can do what you want so we go to the
lockers he looks at all of the manatee
he says John which lorry should I choose
I said I didn’t want do you think he’s
tell me then he notices in the other
room that there are some children
wearing shoes some wearing flip-flops
and someone wearing shoes at all and he
says John what should I wear I don’t
know what do you think please tell me
then we’re going to take part in a mass
game that they were playing some of the
kids have a paper portrait and some had
it landscape John how should I hold the
paper I don’t know what do you think
John please just tell me but then I then
perhaps my most important lesson in the
trip and it was then in directive
schools there are thousands and
thousands of moments where we steal
autonomy from a child we tell them what
to wear tell them where to sit when to
speak even when to pee every time we do
that we still an opportunity for them to
learn how to learn an opportunity to
make free thinkers we’re in opportunity
fundamentally to become emotionally
resonant
so after a few a few weeks we noticed a
huge change he started coming home and
we would see that he would go to the
fridge and make his own snacks we saw
that he started suggesting all these
activities for us to do he started
asking us what we had been doing with
our day but the main thing we noticed
was that he started walking differently
his shoulders were back he looked down
Lots in the eyes and we realized that he
felt good in his skin
I know it’s so much
on Monday mornings they have what I call
kids Council where I facilitates that we
get the children in the circle and get
them to talk about the things they
wanted to improve about the school and
then to take responsibility over who was
going to implement those improvements
they would learn about democracy by
voting people into positions for the
next week it was organizing lunch for
the riverwalk or the math games I saw
two children have a real argument one
day and the guy instead of separating
them came up and put a hand on each
shoulder it gradually helped them to
enter a dialogue where I guess they
learned a small lesson about conflict
resolution I met a number of children
who taught themselves how to read and
write I really always thought you needed
to teach someone how to make a right it
turns out in the correct creative
comfortable loving environment around
the age of 9 and 10 children start to
teach themselves how to be the right in
fact they do it in a few weeks it
doesn’t take years that it does when you
force in letters to a little child I had
this great story where this one day he
came back from school and my girlfriend
asked him what he’d done with the day he
said Oh today I just lay down in the
hammock chatting to my friend
all day and then she said to me wisely
later on but that was an amazing moment
that he was able without any social
pressure to learn to socialize in his
own way and his own case and I giggled
in my head and I thought the hundreds of
pounds I could have taken therapy if I
had been to a school like that – when we
left we asked him what was different
about this school and he said well that
a normal school they tell me what’s
right and what’s wrong but at this
school I had to think for myself what I
think is right and what I think is wrong
and to think for himself
I know my job is to think about
alternatives to the bigger institutions
of the world the future of democracy is
future of work when it comes to
education I just wanna share three basic
patterns that I see the first is
complexity that’s that we live in a
world that is more complex than ever we
here and the reason is because the
problems of the world are global in
nature today they’re global because
everything is so many connected and that
complexity requires ingenious new
solutions for the world of tomorrow and
those solutions come from creativity in
which luckily is one of a child’s
greatest gifts now the second concern is
that because of this technological
process we’re seeing a change
we see one of our most important
institutions and we’re starting to see
the road a little bit I believe it’s at
a tipping point where it will continue
to erode or create better forms of
democracy than ever before but
fundamentally democracy is about
cooperation and I have now seen that
it’s possible to create environments
where children learn what cooperation
means and I’ve seen so many children who
don’t even share a common language they
kindly with each other perhaps a lesson
that they could teach us a little bit
about sometimes the most important
atomicity
is that this technological progress
starts to work on one of our deepest
fears and that’s the fear of the unknown
the anxiety around the unknown think of
the number of God’s tool these are jobs
in the coming years because of
automation losing the job will hurt but
the uncertainty around what sitting next
that really hurts and the best solution
I’ve seen to this is in two thousand
five hundred year old piece of
that asks us to live in the present
moment when it comes to that and then
they children are our gurus so I see the
world sometimes in ironies and education
is perhaps one of the biggest ones we
want democracy the school is the perfect
simulation of autocracy we have been
uncertainty but this school timetable is
the perfect idea of artificial certain
see weenies creativity but when the bell
goes the workers go back to the factory
in go through their exercises but I’ve
now seen there are alternatives many
alternatives and I’m also glad that I
now have a new job and that job is to
guide the little boy to think for
himself and to be who he wants to be so
we’re currently exploring a blended
model Democratic schooling and unsmooth
and it’s just over the road in a
workspace with some friends who are
like-minded we started to build a work
space that’s for all ages they split
into three areas and recently in a
focused area I was writing my book as my
little boy was reading a novel next to
me in the interactive area my girlfriend
was having workshops and meetings and we
so children who building stuff with Lego
and in the social area we learn to live
with each other every week we have a
meeting where we try to hear everybody’s
needs and improve
the place based on that it’s not easy at
home we learn about maths by calculating
the dimensions for the skateboard that
we’re building you know wants to sell
the skateboard online so maybe we’ll
learn some new skills there but I need
to solve the Rubik’s Cube we understand
what an algorithm is and then our family
meeting every week when we discuss and
negotiate screen time we learn to
compromise thing to cooperate with each
other so my new job is the finest job
that I’ve ever had and like all parents
they didn’t get the manual I have no
idea what I’m doing and I’m constantly
worried that I’m getting it wrong it’s
also the most inspiring job in a few
weeks time my girlfriend and I are
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
and a few weeks ago our son I was laying
with him and he said to me what are you
gonna from this mummy but I said I’ll
promise to support her in following the
treaties anyway
[Music]
and said when you promised that to me –
I said they will I think the problems
that we face in the 21st century are
complex but the skills that we need to
overcome them marinate in children and
there are many different ways than many
of the things we can do to improve the
education system but one thing we can
all do as educators is to bring up the
generation of free-range chickens not
caged hens the best thing we can do is
to set children free I believe the best
thing we can do is to learn to get out
of the way do not interrupt and to just
be with children and if we do that I
think that in the future we’ll look up
to a generation younger than us and be proud
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