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hi everyone I’m also the founder a very
special very unique out-of-the-box
thinking educational system
I graduated from Rhode Island School in
design I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts as
well I got my certificate as an advocate
for children in 2014 from the PLT I
parent leadership training institute now
isn’t that kind of strange
a lot a degree is a certified paralegal
Bachelor of Fine Arts and an advocate
for children very strange combination
well anyways I was trained to think
outside the box and like many people in
the world we’ve all done a lot and we’ve
suffered a lot and we’ve gone through
trauma well the reason why I started
this program I lived in Europe for 20
years of the fashion analysts i supply
90% of the fact of the trend information
to the companies in New York and somehow
I went through a very bad divorce and I
lost a lot including my children so when
I came back to the states in 2011 I was
traumatized and so I wanted to give a
little bit background of why so it’s not
like I woke up one day and said look I
want to teach kids how to be designers
didn’t happen that way I almost call it
a spiritual intervention because I kind
of walked away from it constantly and
then somehow the universe kept pushing
me back and forth why I’m here is
because I was very upset about how I saw
the educational system in the United
States when I came back kids came to me
parents came to me and said guess what
we have no more arts in school our
creativity is taken away
we’re losing interest in school we’re
dropping out and they’re giving us these
stupid tests with things we don’t even
have to know now I can tell you right
now I know the youth has changed we call
it evolution children being born today
are not the kind of children that were
born before they are had it they’re
finished they know what they want to be
when they grow up they know that they’re
going to school are going to learn
things they don’t need
I knew what I wanted to be when I was
five years old I knew I wanted to be a
designer although I had to fight my
father for it want me to go into
computer science
the only was language he understood is a
seat I purposely got to see then he let
me go to RISD so when I did some
research because the legal degree gave
me a a sense of a lot of doing research
and I did that for trends but I found
out in the 1900s our educational system
has not changed as the 1900s now
something’s wrong with this picture
why do you take a child and make them
like everybody else we are not a bunch
of sardines in a can
every child is different every child’s
unique so why are we teaching them all
to be the same so I’ve heard some other
text talks the last couple of days
and I saw one professor from England
talk about how creativity’s make is
being taken away and how important it is
the nice I heard a TED talk of a kid TED
talk who’s 14 who started a software
company at 14 and what he said high
school makes you dumber well you know
what I said oh my god they’re speaking
my language so I’m like okay but
everybody’s talking about it everybody
knows this was the problem so when I
started this project and as in the last
couple of days I realized I found the
solution I figured it out so this
project I started I’m about to show you
and in a way what I’ve done I’ve taken
out that whole middle school high school
and I threw it out the window first
thing what does the child want to be
when they grow up don’t it doesn’t
everybody ask their kids that question
and when the kid says well I want to be
this and I want to be that does the
parents sit there and now decide which
school to send that kid based on what he
just said
no oh that’s nice but you can’t do that
until you graduate and then you got to
we’re forced to go into an educational
system
makes you sit there all day long learn
what I started a program which is taken
fashion which is my background I’m a
retired fashion designer and I decided
that I’m going to do something that no
one else has done I was criticized by
the head of the my former head of the
RISD apparel department I hope she sees
us because she was killing me up for a
week she couldn’t sleep
she called me every day when she heard I
was about to teach my RISD education for
free she said you can’t do that I said
why not with a creme de la creme you’re
taking our expensive education you got
to give it away for free she could not
understand she comes from that
old-school mentality you gotta pay for
that education so wait a minute so if I
was born in an underprivileged family I
can’t get the same education that that
kid gets well you know what the
Montessori system which I learned when I
was in Germany when after I retired and
gave up my career to raise my kids I
found that the Montessori system was the
best so what did I do
I took my best education from RISD my
Montessori experience and I fuse them
together and I created this and now I’m
about to show you that I prove that it
works take away all that give the child
what they need and they’re learning to
do math spelling and everything at the
same time they’re being creative because
they don’t realize they’re learning
they’re making their own choices they’re
taking their own there how should I put
it
they’re taking responsibility for their
own learning style plus you’re giving
them an environment that they’re being
creative they’re getting they look at
concept boards they look at dresses my
whole studio is constantly changing I
took that all and I fuse it together and
now we’re being followed by people in
Europe designers are there they’re
coming out of work I don’t even know who
are getting all of on Facebook but I can
tell you I’ve had comments from designs
in European that said how do you do it
these kids are coming up with designs
better than my colleagues people in New
York are following them it’s amazing
well cannot grasp but a five-year-old
can learn too so who can’t even reach
the pedal make her own patterns and make
things that people would want to wear so
guess what it’s time to end this this
kind of educational system we’re done
it’s all about healing empowering
leading by example so I hope everyone
here you may not understand this now
maybe 10 or 20 years from now I want
people in TEDx
to maybe take what I’ve done and apply
it to architecture play it to law plates
anything a child is looking to learn
maybe they’ll be schools opening up for
every type of what they want to be when
they grow up you need to show compassion
you need to have no fear combining all
three brains together is the only way to
teach you can’t concentrate on just on
the left you got to concentrate on the
right left and urinate and Maria
Montessori was the first one to mention
that I teach handicapped children too
she’s the only one that proved that
handicap can learn I want to be a
designer five years old movement
cognitive development
we’re always dancing and I teach
one-on-one because I what I teach is so
complex that you need to I have to get
to know that student I have to dig deep
inside that student and know what makes
them happy and that’s how I teach I
don’t have my lessons prepared have the
basics but when it comes to my lessons
with them they choose the design that
they’re going to make and that’s how I
teach every day it’s something different
they choose a harder design or they
choose a less disorder design they’ll
learn as they do for hours they learn to
sew I teachers through a fashion I teach
real world experience freedom of choice
you’re learning math they’re using spec
sheets that we use in New York they’re
concentrating these kids have D it up
there they have all those does it you
know whatever they call it bipolar this
these kids are concentrating look
these kids are unteachable sometimes in
school but look at them here do they
look like they’re learning and what’s
the most important thing
once you learn something you pass it on
they retain the information more when
they have to give it back this little
girl is just giving back to one of our
new students no competition fashion for
a cause you also have to show compassion
look at what they’ve designed six years
old these are kids of my students and
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