TED Community » Al Vernacchio

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"Teaching Good Sex", Friends Education, Graphic Novels, Philadelphia, LGBTQ Issues in Schools

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• TEDCred score: +53.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +5

  A comment on Talk: Julie Burstein: 4 lessons in creativity

  Nov 13 2012: I saw this talk live at TED2012. It was amazing then and is just as wonderful to watch now! A great video to show my students as they work through their own struggles with creativity.
• +3

  A comment on Conversation: What should I really do with my youth? I'm 18, and I want to really learn. Advice from any adults out there?

  May 24 2012: Mitch - You're already on the journey and it's clear you're making great progress. It doesn't matter so much where you go or what you do, just do it as your authentic self and ask lots of questions without necessarily needing to seek the answers. Don't look for a journey that will change you, look for one that will allow the real you to emerge. That can happen across the world or in your own back yard. Make the journey about being not going, about emerging not arriving.
• +13

  A comment on Talk: Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?

  Apr 3 2012: This was one of the talks that had the most impact on me at TED2012. Working with high school students every day, I see so clearly what Sherry is saying about the loss of true connection and communication. Social networking, texting, and other forms of electronic contact are making us less thoughtful, less connected, and, I find, less authentic. To understand who we truly are takes time. To share our authentic selves takes more than transmitted electronic words or images. Even now as I create this comment I am aware of its limitations. I am not a technophobe, but when the balance of our communication time falls on the electronic side rather than the real face to face, something is amiss. My concern, and I think Sherry's too, is that we are replacing opportunities for face to face communication with tweets and texts. We forego the chance to really communicate and connect for limited communication and pseudo-connection.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: A group poem.

  Mar 30 2012: Blink, I see. Blink, I care.
  Blink, I know. Blink, I dare.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: Teaching : A Profession by Choice or by Chance

  Mar 30 2012: Teaching is a vocation not a profession. It isn't about being unable to "do", Most teachers could "do" fine in a field related to their content area. Teachers, real teachers, value the process of learning and building a community more than any result. As a teacher my joy comes not from knowing my students have mastered their lessons but from seeing them engage with ideas, take risks in their thinking, and light up when they connect with the material. My school does not grant tenure, many schools don't anymore, so it isn't about job security, it's about job satisfaction. It's about believing education is the key to changing the world for the better. It's about knowing young people are the most valuable resource the planet has, and they are not vessels to be filled with information but unique creations encouraged to become who they most truly are. When we stop believing in the power of education, in the power of the teacher-student relationship to be transformative, I fear we've lost the very soul of what it is to be a human community.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Education: who should have control over children's education?

  Mar 21 2012: Education without the participation of the student, or without centering it around the students' needs is indoctrination. If education is truly a "leading forth" as its Latin root suggests then students are led forth into something. Education that leads a student only back to him/herself or back to the educator isn't leading forth, in my view anyway. The student, no matter what age, must play an active role, and educators must seek the emergence of the student into his/her own being. To try to do that without involving the student is arrogant at best.
• +5

  A comment on Talk: Brené Brown: Listening to shame

  Mar 17 2012: Brene Brown's voice is one of THE most important on the world stage today. It seems to me that our global (and especially national) culture of bravado, competition, and defensiveness have led our world into quite a mess. We heal the world by being in it, not trying to take it over. We bridge gaps between people by opening ourselves to each other, not posturing for position. Scary - hell yes! Risky - not as much as we fear it is. Worthwhile - I think it's the only chance we have to save ourselves and our world.
  
  As a side note, I hope Brene will also consider studying shame and vulnerability in LGBT populations. Most of the gay men I know, myself included, don't identify with the "emotional control, status first, violence" thing. And before anyone suggests it, we don't identify with women's list either.