I’m often referred to as an educator
when I’m actually a teacher a very
nervous high school teacher recently
this high school teacher tried her hand
at an online test the questions are from
a show are you smarter than a 5th grader
imagine my surprise and shocked to find
out that I’m not as smart as a 5th
grader in fact I’m just about a smart as
a first grader the only two people who
are smarter than fifth graders in the
whole of America from the thousands of
people who sat for the show won both of
them academic one is called George Smoot
and he’s the winner of the Nobel Prize
in Physics and the other is a woman
called Cathy Cox she’s the
superintendent of schools in Georgia and
she’s an advocate of standardized
testing so just about I mean she’s lucky
that she passed that test so I got to
thinking but this is America right this
is where adults voted in for Donald
Donald Trump so it kind of makes sense
that they’re not as smart as 5th graders
so I thought about what about the
Indians and the Australians and the
Canadians so I scoured the internet for
the countries who had done similar shows
as are you smart as a 5th grader and
there are lots of them but to my
surprise I figured out that none of the
adults really in the world are as smart
as 5th graders now keep in mind all the
questions asked to me and to all the
people on the show are from the primary
school textbooks of grades one to five
so there are a couple of samples I’ll
share with you of the questions that I
failed to answer one was what Jamestown
Settlement Pocahontas in 1614 and
another one’s right here what Puritan
was elected governor blah blah blah blah
blah blah
blah blah bluh bluh bluh bluh brother so
one is one thing I could do is take
solace that you know adults in the world
or as dumb as me but could there be
another conclusion one that would be
kinder to my self-image as a high school
teacher could it be that we don’t know
the questions and answers that we
learned from our elementary textbooks
because the content held no relevance
interest or meaning to our brains in
grade five and they definitely hold no
interest relevance or meaning to our
adults brains the human brain has a
quest to survive and thrive and it will
retain information that is relevant
meaningful and interesting in its quest
to survive and thrive now some of us may
have aced at the grade five tests
because we had some reason to ace the
grade five test when we’re in grade five
we wanted to survive when we went home
with our report cards but this
information went into our short-term
memory system in and short-term memory
system out what a waste of all those
years we spent in school now
surprisingly while we’ve made huge
advancements in medicine technology and
science we’ve done very very little in
education our education system is
absolutely broken
we don’t need little tweaks and fixes we
need an absolute rethink reimagine
reinvent disruption and we need for
parties to come together to do this one
is industry to tell us what jobs will be
there in the future
what aptitudes and skills will be
required to fulfill those jobs the
second appearance to stop pressuring
schools into getting grades and scores
but into igniting human greatness
instead the third are politicians who
will create policies and look at the
board examinations from this point of
view and we educators because then we
will execute this so let’s look at what
happens to an average kid from the time
he enters school to the time he
graduates kids are innately curious and
naturally moonshot thinkers think of
some of the quest
that children ask why did swear words
get invented if we’re not allowed to use
them or wonders at a child in our
kindergarten class recently asked my
mommy just gave birth to a baby my daddy
doesn’t lay eggs so he’s not a reptile
and he doesn’t give birth to baby so
he’s not a mammal I wonder what he is
and this very deep insightful question
my three-year-old son Trish asked me
before he turned vegetarian mama
what if somebody killed me and hit me
how would it make you feel
I can hear this chickens mommy crying
for him interestingly that deep
meaningful question has meant he’s a
vegetarian even today in his 27 just
look at the world through the eyes of a
child anything’s possible
everything’s magical everything’s
inspirational nothing is impossible the
questions what when and where seem to be
a chord in everyone’s academic DNA
instead of asking the correct questions
why what if also in school we learn very
quickly that we’re rewarded for having
the right answers not asking the good
questions
which explains why kids who enter asking
so many whys and what is eventually get
drilled out of it if I were to rapid
fire in this room right now with a group
of questions and one of them was a is
for 98% of you would come back with the
word Apple like 98% of the world would
come back with the world word Apple this
is what we learn in school from the
beginning to the time we graduate to
conform not to create tell you another
story about my son’s wish he came to me
in grade two and he came to me with his
assessment paper subject English he had
to make sentences the word given to him
was boy and this is just one example of
a sentence he made his eventual score
two out of ten because he got half a
mark cut for every word he did not know
how to spell he did not know how to
spell adventurous climbed and mountain
this is in spite the fact he’s in grade
two and he possibly should not know how
next assessment a month leader scored 10
out of 10 but look at the court the
sentences this is a boy that is a book
my son learn very quickly to go from
creativity to conformity he learned very
quickly that school catches us out and
what we don’t know how to do it does not
[Applause]
since the dawn of time real moonshot
change and advancements have been made
by people who did not lose the ability
to stay curious
and ask why and what if imagine if
Newton never asked why or if Einstein
never asked what if I rode a beam of
light across the universe and what’s
happened in all fields not just science
think of the first Polynesian Islander
who said what if I go this other way he
opened he opened a moonshot thinking
door so my journey and my why how and
what if questions came from observing my
younger brother camel couple was an avid
lover of cricket and he was very
intelligent but his school grades said
something completely different so while
he was on this toilet seat I knew he
understood his English because his he
was very articulate and very expressive
I knew he understood his math because he
understood about the scores the distance
the speed of the ball but the minute he
got to school he was disengaged from
both his mats and his English this was
my first information gap in my brain why
would a child who is intelligent not be
able to succeed in school finding the
answer to this information gap is what
would drive me to create context of high
learning high engagement schools just
like the information gap I have
everyone’s brain seeks to fill in
information gaps so imagine if Camelot
heard this question instead something
that a recent commentator asked how high
do you think how high do you need to hit
a cricket ball in order for it to reach
terminal velocity on its
way down this question may have opened
up an information gap that we he would
have had to seek to know the science
math and English to solve the questions
I would ask about my brother which
served me when I became a teacher in
Australia in 1988 I had a classroom full
of teenage boys the subject I had to
teach them was Shakespeare and
Wordsworth why do we teach kids things
that they have no interest in and have
no relevance to their lives I have no
clue but what if I could create an
emotional connection between what was
seemingly abstract Shakespeare and
Wordsworth and no relevance what if I
could connect it to a and build a bridge
from what they know so I introduced the
modern rock songs of the time ballads we
don’t need no education and Simon and
Garfunkel sound sounds of silence they
would learn all about poetry from here
and have a bridge to connect it to the
seemingly abstract Shakespeare and
Wordsworth my next teaching assignment
was in a prestigious school in Mumbai I
was visiting Mumbai and I had fifty five
kids in my classroom seated at rows of
desks barely able to move and what I
experienced broke my heart
55 kids seated in rows not moving
constantly rote learning for a barrage
of continuous tests which would promote
my next set of questions why why do we
Indians promote a compliance based
learning system why do it occasionally
not only support but encourage a ranking
system this is the very system that will
keep us addicted to rote and drill these
wise led to my what-ifs which would lead
from my journey in Australia to building
a home in India what if we could
introduce a learning system that
incorporated effective engaging joyful
learning relevant meaningful what if we
could design instruction that would
empower teachers to ask why and what if
questions over when where and what
questions imagine the power of shifting
a question from when did the Muslim
League first demand partition to Nepal
once said history is a fable agreed on
by man what if this history chapter from
the Indian textbook had to be rewritten
for a Pakistani class it would be a
different fable rewrite this chapter or
instead of asking when did the quit
India movement begin to imagine Gandhi
lived in the age of social media how
many have used this to achieve his
purpose create a quit India movement
social media plan with sample uploads
and posts think Facebook Instagram
Twitter blogs the first trailer
questioning promotes memory the second
type of questioning creates a much
deeper level of engagement a much deeper
level of thinking a much deeper level of
understanding and um keeps the mind
curious and engaged so we all do we’re
at the brink of a revolution a huge
breakthrough in the history of man it’s
gonna be the most profound revolution
we’ve ever experienced it’s going to
impact us personally nationally and
globally it’s not it’s already started
to change the way we work we think we
create we play and it’s going to
continue to revolutionize it it’s
certainly gonna change the landscape of
the type of work available and the
careers up and it’s going to change the
nature of skills and aptitudes we
require to do those jobs so now as a
group we need to collectively ask why
are we training kids to spit up at facts
when we’ve got the Internet to do that
especially in an age where knowledge is
doubling every two and a half years
we’ve got Google and Wikipedia that can
spit back facts memorization is no
longer a valued or desired skill yet we
spend 80% of our time doing that in
schools what if we could create schools
as a space where we inspire kids to
think in moonshots where they’re it’s a
space where they could feel safe to
invent create and discover humans
throughout history have done things that
seem normal at the time but seem
atrocious later on think slavery women
not being allowed to vote exercise
corporal punishment in schools my god we
even use cocaine is medicine with our
kids and kept them in baby cages my
belief is one day we’ll look back at
what we’re doing to kids in our current
education system with the same sort of
atrociousness let’s look at what will
shadow what we put our kids through
could it be that we’ll think back and
think oh my god how do we allow
one-size-fits-all curriculum a one-size
method of teaching and once diet size
fits all assessment when we know every
child is different why did we allow our
children to be valued only by what their
memories could hold why did we allow our
children such long commutes on the
school bus in metropolitan cities
children spend two or more years of
their life on a school bus and this is
the biggest why did we constantly allow
politicians to subject our kids to
frequent redirections and reversals
based on a populist vote we need major
disruption in education and we all know
that major disruption can cause fear of
change think about the fact that it took
two centuries for us to allow the
printed textbook into our classrooms and
we approached calculators with much the
same trepidation and fear as we look at
technology today but instead of fear
what if we were to get excited about
what this education system could look
like what is this future of learning
could it be an education system where we
value the right brain as much as the
left brain where we teach empathy and
creativity with as much importance as we
teach math and science could it be a
place where we teach kids that life is
not just about material abundance it’s
about and we spend time mentoring our
kids on finding fulfillment meaning
purpose we would include brain and mind
studies where we would empower our kids
to know how their minds can change the
structure of their brains and influence
the way they feel and therefore the way
they think the way they act and
therefore the outcome of their lives in
doing so we could we could allow our
children to define their own personal
values and engineer their own happiness
we would teach our kids all about what
neuroscience tells us how to know what
the dominant learning style is and how
to maximize it in order to learn
the power of visualization and the
biology of belief today we know that
thoughts of things and every thought we
have impacts the quality of our life we
would move from pen and paper tests to
real authentic performances of
understanding which would include
portfolios podcasts and videos we would
allow our children to pursue knowledge
gaps that they have what Matt’s and
English and science do they need in
order to solve this problem in order to
create that something that is of meaning
and interest to them we would rule
relook the courses what they were doing
in school to include contemporary real
relevant things mindfulness
relationships 21st century thinking
mindful consumerism exponential
technology we would recognize our
children like we adults have different
sleeping patterns and when we say true
to our sleeping patterns we maximize our
cognitive abilities what about we had
school from 8 to 8 and we had learning
hubs close to home that kids could
attend and come to school twice a week
imagine how many of their days we could
give back and allow them to reclaim
their childhood our schools should be
based on what we observe in our study of
successful people and we’ve seen so many
of them today
it’s an emotional quality not the
intellectual one
that separates the intelligent people
from the truly magnificent people after
all it’s the mindsets of our children
not their grades that would will
determine how happy successful and
fulfill they are as adults it’s the
quality of the questions we allow them
to ask the wise and what ifs
that will determine the course of their
journey is the depth depth of questions
we encourage our children to ask that
will determine how their lives unfold
physically emotionally and spiritually
it’s this that will give our children
the difference between an ordinary life
and an extraordinary life between being
intelligent and being magnificent thank
you
you [Music]
when I’m actually a teacher a very
nervous high school teacher recently
this high school teacher tried her hand
at an online test the questions are from
a show are you smarter than a 5th grader
imagine my surprise and shocked to find
out that I’m not as smart as a 5th
grader in fact I’m just about a smart as
a first grader the only two people who
are smarter than fifth graders in the
whole of America from the thousands of
people who sat for the show won both of
them academic one is called George Smoot
and he’s the winner of the Nobel Prize
in Physics and the other is a woman
called Cathy Cox she’s the
superintendent of schools in Georgia and
she’s an advocate of standardized
testing so just about I mean she’s lucky
that she passed that test so I got to
thinking but this is America right this
is where adults voted in for Donald
Donald Trump so it kind of makes sense
that they’re not as smart as 5th graders
so I thought about what about the
Indians and the Australians and the
Canadians so I scoured the internet for
the countries who had done similar shows
as are you smart as a 5th grader and
there are lots of them but to my
surprise I figured out that none of the
adults really in the world are as smart
as 5th graders now keep in mind all the
questions asked to me and to all the
people on the show are from the primary
school textbooks of grades one to five
so there are a couple of samples I’ll
share with you of the questions that I
failed to answer one was what Jamestown
Settlement Pocahontas in 1614 and
another one’s right here what Puritan
was elected governor blah blah blah blah
blah blah
blah blah bluh bluh bluh bluh brother so
one is one thing I could do is take
solace that you know adults in the world
or as dumb as me but could there be
another conclusion one that would be
kinder to my self-image as a high school
teacher could it be that we don’t know
the questions and answers that we
learned from our elementary textbooks
because the content held no relevance
interest or meaning to our brains in
grade five and they definitely hold no
interest relevance or meaning to our
adults brains the human brain has a
quest to survive and thrive and it will
retain information that is relevant
meaningful and interesting in its quest
to survive and thrive now some of us may
have aced at the grade five tests
because we had some reason to ace the
grade five test when we’re in grade five
we wanted to survive when we went home
with our report cards but this
information went into our short-term
memory system in and short-term memory
system out what a waste of all those
years we spent in school now
surprisingly while we’ve made huge
advancements in medicine technology and
science we’ve done very very little in
education our education system is
absolutely broken
we don’t need little tweaks and fixes we
need an absolute rethink reimagine
reinvent disruption and we need for
parties to come together to do this one
is industry to tell us what jobs will be
there in the future
what aptitudes and skills will be
required to fulfill those jobs the
second appearance to stop pressuring
schools into getting grades and scores
but into igniting human greatness
instead the third are politicians who
will create policies and look at the
board examinations from this point of
view and we educators because then we
will execute this so let’s look at what
happens to an average kid from the time
he enters school to the time he
graduates kids are innately curious and
naturally moonshot thinkers think of
some of the quest
that children ask why did swear words
get invented if we’re not allowed to use
them or wonders at a child in our
kindergarten class recently asked my
mommy just gave birth to a baby my daddy
doesn’t lay eggs so he’s not a reptile
and he doesn’t give birth to baby so
he’s not a mammal I wonder what he is
and this very deep insightful question
my three-year-old son Trish asked me
before he turned vegetarian mama
what if somebody killed me and hit me
how would it make you feel
I can hear this chickens mommy crying
for him interestingly that deep
meaningful question has meant he’s a
vegetarian even today in his 27 just
look at the world through the eyes of a
child anything’s possible
everything’s magical everything’s
inspirational nothing is impossible the
questions what when and where seem to be
a chord in everyone’s academic DNA
instead of asking the correct questions
why what if also in school we learn very
quickly that we’re rewarded for having
the right answers not asking the good
questions
which explains why kids who enter asking
so many whys and what is eventually get
drilled out of it if I were to rapid
fire in this room right now with a group
of questions and one of them was a is
for 98% of you would come back with the
word Apple like 98% of the world would
come back with the world word Apple this
is what we learn in school from the
beginning to the time we graduate to
conform not to create tell you another
story about my son’s wish he came to me
in grade two and he came to me with his
assessment paper subject English he had
to make sentences the word given to him
was boy and this is just one example of
a sentence he made his eventual score
two out of ten because he got half a
mark cut for every word he did not know
how to spell he did not know how to
spell adventurous climbed and mountain
this is in spite the fact he’s in grade
two and he possibly should not know how
next assessment a month leader scored 10
out of 10 but look at the court the
sentences this is a boy that is a book
my son learn very quickly to go from
creativity to conformity he learned very
quickly that school catches us out and
what we don’t know how to do it does not
[Applause]
since the dawn of time real moonshot
change and advancements have been made
by people who did not lose the ability
to stay curious
and ask why and what if imagine if
Newton never asked why or if Einstein
never asked what if I rode a beam of
light across the universe and what’s
happened in all fields not just science
think of the first Polynesian Islander
who said what if I go this other way he
opened he opened a moonshot thinking
door so my journey and my why how and
what if questions came from observing my
younger brother camel couple was an avid
lover of cricket and he was very
intelligent but his school grades said
something completely different so while
he was on this toilet seat I knew he
understood his English because his he
was very articulate and very expressive
I knew he understood his math because he
understood about the scores the distance
the speed of the ball but the minute he
got to school he was disengaged from
both his mats and his English this was
my first information gap in my brain why
would a child who is intelligent not be
able to succeed in school finding the
answer to this information gap is what
would drive me to create context of high
learning high engagement schools just
like the information gap I have
everyone’s brain seeks to fill in
information gaps so imagine if Camelot
heard this question instead something
that a recent commentator asked how high
do you think how high do you need to hit
a cricket ball in order for it to reach
terminal velocity on its
way down this question may have opened
up an information gap that we he would
have had to seek to know the science
math and English to solve the questions
I would ask about my brother which
served me when I became a teacher in
Australia in 1988 I had a classroom full
of teenage boys the subject I had to
teach them was Shakespeare and
Wordsworth why do we teach kids things
that they have no interest in and have
no relevance to their lives I have no
clue but what if I could create an
emotional connection between what was
seemingly abstract Shakespeare and
Wordsworth and no relevance what if I
could connect it to a and build a bridge
from what they know so I introduced the
modern rock songs of the time ballads we
don’t need no education and Simon and
Garfunkel sound sounds of silence they
would learn all about poetry from here
and have a bridge to connect it to the
seemingly abstract Shakespeare and
Wordsworth my next teaching assignment
was in a prestigious school in Mumbai I
was visiting Mumbai and I had fifty five
kids in my classroom seated at rows of
desks barely able to move and what I
experienced broke my heart
55 kids seated in rows not moving
constantly rote learning for a barrage
of continuous tests which would promote
my next set of questions why why do we
Indians promote a compliance based
learning system why do it occasionally
not only support but encourage a ranking
system this is the very system that will
keep us addicted to rote and drill these
wise led to my what-ifs which would lead
from my journey in Australia to building
a home in India what if we could
introduce a learning system that
incorporated effective engaging joyful
learning relevant meaningful what if we
could design instruction that would
empower teachers to ask why and what if
questions over when where and what
questions imagine the power of shifting
a question from when did the Muslim
League first demand partition to Nepal
once said history is a fable agreed on
by man what if this history chapter from
the Indian textbook had to be rewritten
for a Pakistani class it would be a
different fable rewrite this chapter or
instead of asking when did the quit
India movement begin to imagine Gandhi
lived in the age of social media how
many have used this to achieve his
purpose create a quit India movement
social media plan with sample uploads
and posts think Facebook Instagram
Twitter blogs the first trailer
questioning promotes memory the second
type of questioning creates a much
deeper level of engagement a much deeper
level of thinking a much deeper level of
understanding and um keeps the mind
curious and engaged so we all do we’re
at the brink of a revolution a huge
breakthrough in the history of man it’s
gonna be the most profound revolution
we’ve ever experienced it’s going to
impact us personally nationally and
globally it’s not it’s already started
to change the way we work we think we
create we play and it’s going to
continue to revolutionize it it’s
certainly gonna change the landscape of
the type of work available and the
careers up and it’s going to change the
nature of skills and aptitudes we
require to do those jobs so now as a
group we need to collectively ask why
are we training kids to spit up at facts
when we’ve got the Internet to do that
especially in an age where knowledge is
doubling every two and a half years
we’ve got Google and Wikipedia that can
spit back facts memorization is no
longer a valued or desired skill yet we
spend 80% of our time doing that in
schools what if we could create schools
as a space where we inspire kids to
think in moonshots where they’re it’s a
space where they could feel safe to
invent create and discover humans
throughout history have done things that
seem normal at the time but seem
atrocious later on think slavery women
not being allowed to vote exercise
corporal punishment in schools my god we
even use cocaine is medicine with our
kids and kept them in baby cages my
belief is one day we’ll look back at
what we’re doing to kids in our current
education system with the same sort of
atrociousness let’s look at what will
shadow what we put our kids through
could it be that we’ll think back and
think oh my god how do we allow
one-size-fits-all curriculum a one-size
method of teaching and once diet size
fits all assessment when we know every
child is different why did we allow our
children to be valued only by what their
memories could hold why did we allow our
children such long commutes on the
school bus in metropolitan cities
children spend two or more years of
their life on a school bus and this is
the biggest why did we constantly allow
politicians to subject our kids to
frequent redirections and reversals
based on a populist vote we need major
disruption in education and we all know
that major disruption can cause fear of
change think about the fact that it took
two centuries for us to allow the
printed textbook into our classrooms and
we approached calculators with much the
same trepidation and fear as we look at
technology today but instead of fear
what if we were to get excited about
what this education system could look
like what is this future of learning
could it be an education system where we
value the right brain as much as the
left brain where we teach empathy and
creativity with as much importance as we
teach math and science could it be a
place where we teach kids that life is
not just about material abundance it’s
about and we spend time mentoring our
kids on finding fulfillment meaning
purpose we would include brain and mind
studies where we would empower our kids
to know how their minds can change the
structure of their brains and influence
the way they feel and therefore the way
they think the way they act and
therefore the outcome of their lives in
doing so we could we could allow our
children to define their own personal
values and engineer their own happiness
we would teach our kids all about what
neuroscience tells us how to know what
the dominant learning style is and how
to maximize it in order to learn
the power of visualization and the
biology of belief today we know that
thoughts of things and every thought we
have impacts the quality of our life we
would move from pen and paper tests to
real authentic performances of
understanding which would include
portfolios podcasts and videos we would
allow our children to pursue knowledge
gaps that they have what Matt’s and
English and science do they need in
order to solve this problem in order to
create that something that is of meaning
and interest to them we would rule
relook the courses what they were doing
in school to include contemporary real
relevant things mindfulness
relationships 21st century thinking
mindful consumerism exponential
technology we would recognize our
children like we adults have different
sleeping patterns and when we say true
to our sleeping patterns we maximize our
cognitive abilities what about we had
school from 8 to 8 and we had learning
hubs close to home that kids could
attend and come to school twice a week
imagine how many of their days we could
give back and allow them to reclaim
their childhood our schools should be
based on what we observe in our study of
successful people and we’ve seen so many
of them today
it’s an emotional quality not the
intellectual one
that separates the intelligent people
from the truly magnificent people after
all it’s the mindsets of our children
not their grades that would will
determine how happy successful and
fulfill they are as adults it’s the
quality of the questions we allow them
to ask the wise and what ifs
that will determine the course of their
journey is the depth depth of questions
we encourage our children to ask that
will determine how their lives unfold
physically emotionally and spiritually
it’s this that will give our children
the difference between an ordinary life
and an extraordinary life between being
intelligent and being magnificent thank
you
you [Music]
Please follow and like us: