TED Community » Madison Fitzmaurice

Sign in to send Madison an email »

About Me

5000 characters? Wow . . . sadly I'm not that interesting. Perhaps one day I'll be quoted in essays but I haven't quite got to that point yet. I was born in 1995 but that's just what they told me, frankly I don't remember any of it, thankfully. I have a great interest in human perspective, and how it might change regardless of reality. And like every young person I have various critiques on . . . well everything I suppose, nobody ever seems happy with anything. But specifically the education system and how it needs to change. Ken Robinson, if you're reading this, feel free to come round for dinner.

Location:
New Zealand, Wellington
Gender:
Male
I am:
Agnostic, Connector, Performer, Student
Member Picture Member Picture Member Picture Member Picture Member Picture

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Parkour, free-running, comedy, photography and film making occupy most of my spare time. Failing that I like to sit around and think about the universe; so far I've deduced that there's a lot in it.

Comments

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

  • A reply on Conversation: Is it possible for an individual to be without ethnocentrism?

    Sep 12 2012: I don't think there are an awful lot of five year old children who would be able to grasp the concept of ethnocentrism. And even then do you mean that we should educate them in every culture? I suspect that being raised while being consistently told a vast amount of contradicting opinions and beliefs would not be good for a child. Also given the sheer number of different cultures out there, the parent would have a nigh impossible task set for them. Besides which, most ethnocentrism is harmless. Sure you get the extremists, but I think most people are happy to let everyone be who they want to be. For example you can disagree with religion but as long as those who are religious don't come knocking on your door to tell you about the coming apocalypse you're generally happy to let them get on with it. I'm agnostic but I have friends who are religious as well as friends from a broad range of different cultures and backgrounds. Sure I have my opinions but I also respect them as individuals, so I don't argue with them about something that doesn't effect me or our relationship. And if it ever does then we negotiate and we compromise. So while I do think ethnocentrism is inevitable, that doesn't mean you can't be civil about it. :)

  • A comment on Conversation: What are the arguments for and against philosophy in high school?

    Sep 12 2012: Were philosophy to be taught at high schools I suspect that they would most likely make a mess of the whole thing. Most of the children I see tend to become philosophical thinkers of their own accord; it's simply human nature to question things. If philosophy were to become a class in school it would be standardised so that it could be more easily assessed and as such would do more harm than good.
  • +3

    A comment on Conversation: Is it possible for an individual to be without ethnocentrism?

    Sep 11 2012: I think Humans by necessity must judge other phenomena, whether it be culture, a person or an experience, by what we already know. To not do so would make it very hard to function in everyday life. It's a cognitive bias known as the anchoring effect. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it effectively just means our perception of the present is partial to what we have already experienced. Although it is of course possible to compensate for this, I think the challenge lies in understanding how immensely subject you are to all these faults in human reasoning. And from there being able to isolate, and analyse each fault one by one. A very tedious task I think, and as such not one undertaken by an abundance of people.

Favorite talksSee all »