TED Conversations

Rahul G.

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

How Can We Make TED Attractive To Children?

TED has changed my perspective on many aspects of life. I am inspired to do many things, but I sometimes feel it is too late. Making lifelong decisions is part of growing up, and I truly feel a resource like TED can help one make those decisions.

These decisions must be made in one's early stages in life: as a child/teen. TED talks are relatively sophisticated and require a high degree of maturity and intellect to fully grasp; competencies which are made available over time.

How can we gear the Talks towards children, and help them understand how vast our world is, and their opportunities are? I sure wish I knew about TED when I was younger; but the sad thing is, I think that even if I did, I would get bored very quickly simply because I would not understand.

I am interested in your opinions and thoughts so I can try to implement some tactics in my local community.

+9
Share:

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.

  • John Madsen

    • 0
    Apr 14 2011: Since this and other formats were created for adults on TED, why couldn't a seperate Conversations room be created for the children and teens. I would suggest parental/guardian oversight to make sure the kids are alright. It might be, not only interesting, but eye opening as well to read what the kids think about the issues of the day. You know what they say, "Out of the mouths of babes...."
    • thumb

      Tom Jacques

      • 0
      Apr 16 2011: Why seperate the teen/children from the adult ?

      Teens have other ideas, other opinion and other lifestyle(I generalize:P)
      Adult have other idea.etc, too...

      Why don't just learn from each other?

      • John Madsen

        • +1
        Apr 19 2011: In answer to your question, "Why seperate teen/children from the adult?" The answer to that is simple; they aren't adults. If you have talks that are simplified for the younger generations, you run the risk of losing the adult audience. If the talks are too deep, you'll lose the young ones.

        I don't know about you, but I'm a parent and a grandparent and my wife and I had always encouraged our kids to think for themselves. But, the bottom line is that they were kids then, and as such, they could only comprehend things from a childs perspective. If a child or teen is mature enough to carry themselves in a deep talk, then I would welcome them. Unfortunately, I think those kinds of kids are too few and too far between, so the best thing to do would be to give them a place they can call their own for their talks on what they believe is important to their generation and, possibly, to the world.
        • thumb

          Estelle Rinaudo

          • 0
          Apr 20 2011: I agree with John, I think talks should be accessible, fun and inspiring to watch... otherwise they will watch 1 or 2 talks but we will loose them. It is great to see people like Dan, that have so much will to learn, but not all kids are like that, so it is our job to make it appealing to them. Deep talks and deep ideas in a fun way.

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.