TED Community » Varlan Allan

Sign in to send Varlan an email »

About Me

I'm teacher in Singapore private sector. I have been here for over two years and have developed my own program to teach children how to read. Over the past year I have written 8 children's books and working on 3 adult novels. Most of my work is dominated by content of my family experience as I have 9 brothers and 7 sisters. My family has also fueled my interest in consumerism and how my family lived on minimal income. As of the last year, I have looked at Asia and how it is relating to my life and world as well. The rise of Chinese consumerism and how/if we can change the perceptions Asians have of the West's lifestyle after it has been looked up to for so long and is now destroying the planet. How can we convince nearly 3 billion people to not take on the lifestyle that looked so glamorous, so promising. I recently had my first child, and these are the issues I must face to help her. Teaching her less is more. Poor is not unhappy, and how we must live with less.

Location:
Canada, Thunder Bay, On
Current organization:
I CAN READ
Current role:
Teacher
Gender:
Male
Areas of expertise:
Creativity, art and writing
Languages:
English
Universities:
Lakehead University Alumni
Member Picture

TEDCRED 10+

More About Me

I'm passionate about

My passions are using creative thinking and innovation to educate new critical thinkers through exciting learning experiences. Also, I study human perceptions of good and evil through writing.

An idea worth spreading

Learning to live with less without losing the things we love. It is my contention that less options for consumers has gone unregulated for too long. Saying it does not mean that we take every similar item off the self, but it means limiting the number of similar items. Do we really need 15 different types of toothpaste? Do we really need 1000's overly salty and sugary snacks? Do we really need to put MicroSD cards in plastic sealed packaging that are literally 50 times larger than the actual product? Consumers have been sent down a path of useless, unnecessary squandering and for what? So they have satisfaction of making a choice? The masses don't know what they want, that doesn't mean they need everything. But how do we change people's perceptions and living habits? Like all ideas on TED, there is never an easy answer. A place to start could be Government Policy that helps entrepreneurs that create new useful products and Educating youths out of a consumerist lifestyle

Talk to me about

Education, Creativity and Writing, Technology

People don't know that I'm good at

Creating new ideas for uses of current technologies.

My TED Story

I'm not really sure what I am to write in here, but I found TED by accident. My friend had written on her facebook about the site and I just decided to check it out. Since then I have told almost everyone I know or meet about TED. I have been most impressed by talks by Ken Robinson talk on creativity, Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity and writing, and lastly the variety of the technology talks by many.

Comments

  • TEDCred score: +11.10 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • A comment on Conversation: Can you define your life in just six words?

    Jan 13 2013: Father, Husband, Brother, Earth, Memory, Time
  • +4

    A comment on Conversation: Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?

    Jan 13 2013: Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put thing in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That ...would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to......... 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. LET'S SEE.... That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!

    The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

    Make a teacher smile; re-post this to show appreciation ♥ all you out there!

    From a friend in Canada

  • A reply on Conversation: Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?

    Jan 13 2013: Well read through and it made a tonne of references to University education and not much reference to elementary, primary or secondary level education.

  • A comment on Conversation: Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?

    Jan 13 2013: @ Brock Hardwood

    I would like to know where you are getting your statistics...
    I never said there is no governing body to maintain standards of teaching. And I think that that is the largest of most people's concerns. But I would not be surprised by lower standards at private schools, but I believe in keeping a governing body which often private schools do not have. I am interested in seeing the numbers.
    But someone such as myself believes in Higher standards and peer evaluation.

  • A comment on Conversation: Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?

    Jan 12 2013: Love this perspective. Teachers that are of good quality will get recognised and those who aren't fall by the wayside.
    I believe teaching just like any profession deserves a fair existence in the business world. I think people have gotten too comfortable with the idea of the government being responsible for educating their children. Imagine the savings. Imagine the quality increase.

  • A reply on Conversation: Debate: Having children should be regulated or licensed

    Nov 13 2012: Its not simply an issue of protecting children but one of our earth(environment) and society.
  • +1

    A reply on Conversation: Debate: Having children should be regulated or licensed

    Nov 13 2012: Im not asking for an evaluation for the perfect parent, never once had i stated that, but from your statement 'the key to parenthood is to face imperfection' can we not evaluate someone's ability to face imperfection and difficult situations with children? I think there can be a set of standards for a good parent to uphold.

  • A comment on Conversation: Debate: Having children should be regulated or licensed

    Nov 12 2012: Thanks for all the great comments so far. Could the answer lie in a combined effort of education, observation and evaluation?

  • A reply on Conversation: Debate: Having children should be regulated or licensed

    Nov 12 2012: Maybe a combination of both things are needed evaluation and education and observation?

  • A reply on Conversation: Debate: Having children should be regulated or licensed

    Nov 12 2012: Um, I would clearly disagree with your rebuttal. There are some very clear standards.

    No Abuse
    Safe Environment

    Just to name a few
Load 10 more Comments (Showing 1 - 10 of 217)

Favorite talks

This member doesn't have any favorite talks yet.