TED Community » Sheila Potter

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Fixing our public school system - the way that it smothers creativity and curiosity; using technology in the hands of students to foster critical thinking; bringing children into wild spaces to play..

Talk to me about

Anything.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: Let students be teachers and curriculum developers

  Mar 8 2011: But what if the teacher remained the content expert (except in the case of technology where, most often, the student is the expert) and collaborated with students to harness their creativity and fearlessness...make curriculum less boring?

• A reply on Conversation: What do you think should be the strategy to make every human a citizen scientist?

  Mar 8 2011: Thank-you for that great link!
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  A comment on Conversation: Let students be teachers and curriculum developers

  Mar 8 2011: Great Idea!! And in small ways, it has been done. Look-up GenY - a really great program thats been around for a while. At one of the universities where I worked, students went beyond mere TA support in the class, and were given summer jobs working with profs to create technology-infused curriculum. I have tried to propose the idea of student tech support for teachers in various schools, and it has been successful (generalizing broadly) in places where teachers and administrators already had a great relationship with students - in particular, one of mutual respect. Sadly, I have found that to be rare. I'd love to hear more about how you would see this idea playing out!
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  A comment on Talk: Liz Coleman's call to reinvent liberal arts education

  Nov 12 2009: To Liz Coleman - Thank-you for hope in a (sometimes, seemingly) hopeless world. I will do my best to be at your Centre for the Advancement of Public Action someday, in some capacity. I can't think of anything our species could use more to heal its ills than such a place to collaborate - a "secular church".

• A reply on Talk: Liz Coleman's call to reinvent liberal arts education

  Nov 12 2009: Leonardo - I totally agree, and also thought of Mr. Awuha. Have you seen the website for the Dr Coleman's "Centre for the Advancement of Public Action":
  http://www.bennington.edu/CAPA/index.html
  
  Incredibly uplifting to know that such places are being created.

• A comment on Talk: Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius

  Feb 13 2009: Beautiful, insightful, uplifting talk...piercing in its honesty. I feel privileged to have heard it - THANK-YOU, TED!!! But, I have all kinds of problems with it.
  What if the 'problem' is attributing the work to "genius" at all. What is considered 'brilliant' is merely a matter of human perception...all flawed and limited in its human way. The feeling that "brilliance" inspires may be an intoxicating, soaring, religious-like experience, but what if that is as much to do with the person feeling, as with the one who inspired it? Really, we have a capacity to feel, and to celebrate ourselves that is amazing - but maybe that's all it is: Humans - all brilliant in our own small way - celebrating one another, and thereby celebrating ourselves. No genius, no pressure, and certainly, NO GOD - something very valuable but much smaller and more universally accessible than all of that.
  Which brings me to what REALLY bothers me: the implication that "brilliance" is so exclusive...what if its not? What if we choose to exclude ourselves, or not, merely because we've been taught that "genius" is bestowed upon a few - an exclusive club? Maybe if more of us believed ourselves capable of joining the club, it would take the pressure off those few who found the confidence to shine?
  And besides, what about celebrating the process? So what if the product doesn't generate world-wide acclaim - isn't that fairly false anyway? The so-called "stroke of genius" may not ever escape your kitchen...maybe it inspires a beautiful thought or an elegant doodle, or maybe it doesn't escape the mind at all.
  If you bothered to read this, I think that's pretty cool. What a world, eh?